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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



HENRY YOUNT RUSH 



LIFE AND WRITINGS 



-OF- 



Rev. Henry Y. Rush, D. D. 



WRITTEN AND EDITED BY 



B. F. Vaughan 



With Introductions and Tributes from Friends 



1911 

THE CHBISTIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 
DAYTON, OHIO 



JBXG753 

s 



COPYRIGHT 1911 
BY B. F. VAUGHAN 



PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1911 



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>C/.A293 



"He lived and loved, 

And, dying, proved 

How greater than his finished line 

Is man: well-nigh divine." 

— Sarah K. Bolton. 



O 

O O 

O O O 

O O 

O 



DEDICATION 

1. I humbly dedicate this book to the wife and 
daughter of my departed friend whose Life Story it 
relates. 

2. To my own dear wife who has shared with me in 
its preparation. 

3. To the ministry and laity whose kindly patronage 
will be greatly appreciated. 

By the Author. 



PREFACE 

It has been a source of real enjoyment and satisfac- 
tion to follow the life of such a man as Dr. Rush through 
his career of usefulness. I have endeavored to give a 
true and faithful picture of the man, and of the move- 
ments and institutions with which he was associated. I 
gratefully acknowledge the cheerful co-operation and val- 
uable assistance of the following ministers: Rev. J. P. 
Barrett, D. D., w r ho writes the Introduction to Part I — 
Life and Letters; Rev. Warren H. Denison : D. D., for the 
Introduction to Part II— Sermons and Miscellaneous 
Writings; also to Rev. D. E. Millard, D. D. ; Rev. J. B. 
Weston, D. D., LL. D. ; Rev. S. S. Newhouse, D. D. ; Rev. 
D. A. Long, D. D., LL. D.; Rev. O. P. Furnas, Col. F. M. 
Sterrett, Van S. Deaton, M. D., and Hon. J. Warren 
Keifer, who have written beautiful and appreciative Esti- 
mates, or Tributes to the memory of such a worthy and 
beloved brother. I also very gratefully acknowledge the 
cheerful help of Mr. D. M. McCullough and others, who 
have furnished some very interesting items concerning his 
work as a school teacher and during his early ministry. 

It has been a source of constant pleasure and grati- 
tude to me also to enjoy the willing co-operation of his 
widow, Mrs. Rush, through all my labors of nearly two 
years. Valuable material has been furnished relating to 
his public and private life, while access has been given to 
his most valuable and interesting writings. The work 
might have been made much more voluminous, as a large 



amount of excellent sermons and writings had to be omit- 
ted. It has been difficult to select the best material from 
so large a mass of writing, all of which was interesting 
and worthy of preservation. We sincerely hope the work 
may find a large circle of readers. We have tried to make 
a book that would be worthy of the man, and would be a 
real treasure to many of his warm friends and admirers. 
The illustrations used we hope will add to the value of the 
book. We now submit it to a grateful public, with the 
humble wish that the book may bring pleasure and com- 
fort to many homes. 

B. F. Vaughan, 

Centerville, Ohio, July 7, 1911. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction — A Threshold Greeting 

Rev. J. P. Barrett, D. D. 11 

Editor Herald of Gospel Liberty 

PART ONE 

Life and Letters 
Chapter Page 

I. Parentage and Early Lifh. — Ancestors. — Par- 

ents. — Slavery. — "Friends/' — Apprenticeship. 
— Academy at Ashboro. — Parents Move to In- 
diana 15 

II. Educational Pursuits.— Friend's High School. 

— Doan Academy. — Antioch College 19 

III. Early Ministry. — Course at Meadville. — 
Marriage. — First Pastoral Work 25 

IV. Life as a Soldier. — Raises a Company. — Ap- 
pointed First Lieutenant. — Service. — Dis- 
charge on Account of Failing Health 31 

V. Editorial Career. — Continues Pulpit Work. — 
Becomes Editor of the "Gospel Herald/' then 
of the "Herald of Gospel Liberty/' — His Abil- 
ity as a Writer. — Pastoral Work at Shiloh 
and Trotwood -" 43 

VI. Pastoral Work at Franklin and West Mil- 
ton. — Sermons. — Pulpit Style and Ability. — 
Positions of Honor and Trust. — Literary Work 49 



VII. Eetires From Pastoral Work. — Failing 
Health of Mrs. Bush. — Home Life. — Letters 
of Sympathy and Appreciation. — Preaches 
Many Funerals. — Receives a Degree. — Closing 
Years. — Passes to His Reward 55 

Reminiscences and Tributes to H. Y. Rush — 

Reminiscences by an Old Friend 

By Hon. Van S. Deaton 67 

My Recollections of H. Y. Rush 

By Col. Frank M. Sterrett 73 

From an Old Classmate at Meadville 

By Rev. D. E. Millard, D. D. 7G 

A Friendly Estimate from a Nonogenarian . . . . 

By Rev. J. B. Weston, D. D., LL. D. 77 

Chancellor of Christian Biblical Institute 

A Tribute of Love from One of His Native 

State By Rev. D. A. Long, D. D., LL. D. 78 

General Kiefer's Estimate of H. Y. Rush as a Sol- 
dier By J. Warren Kiefer 79 

The Friendly Tribute of Another Meadville 

Graduate By Rev. S. S. Newhouse, D. D. 81 

Warm Words of Praise from a Brother in the 

Ministry By Rev. O. P. Furnas 83 

From a Southern Friend 

Bv Rev. W. W. Staley 8G 



PART TWO 
Introduction. . . .By Rev. Warren H. Denison, D. D. 89 
Sermons. — Addresses. — Essays, and Extracts from 

Sermons 93 

Gems from Mines of Truth 214 

Song — War Stories — Letters 219 

Short Articles, and Stray Papers 267 



A THRESHOLD GREETING 

To introduce a friend to friends is a high privilege. 
The act widens the circle of life's blessings and opportuni- 
ties, enriching the mind and heart, and crowning the life 
with larger fruitage. I am glad to introduce you to so 
sterling a character as my late friend and beloved brother, 
the Rev. Henry Yount Rush, D. D s , as so well portrayed in 
these pages by the Rev. B. F. Vaughan, Centerville, Ohio. 

When asked why he put so much work on his pictures, 
Apelles, the Greek painter, replied : "Because I am paint- 
ing for eternity!" This book will convince you that Dr. 
Rush was a painstaking servant of the Lord Jesus Christ 
— that he was laboring for eternity, hence this character- 
istic of his life. The author presents Dr. Rush to us, not 
only as a gentle and beloved messenger of the Prince of 
Peace, but as a man of high ideals, of ripe culture, of fine 
thought, and of heroic devotion to duty. As a speaker he 
was ready and fluent, as a writer he possessed an easy 
Addisonian style, and as a thinker he was forceful and 
stimulating, making him indeed a most delightful com- 
panion and a wise counsellor. You have no ordinary 
privilege in enjoying an acquaintance with one so Christ- 
like, even though it be an acquaintance through the pen 
of another. 

It was Thomas Carlyle who said : "A true delineation 
of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest 
man." 

If that be true, as no doubt it is, then I risk nothing 
in commending the life of so noble and devoted a Chris- 



tian minister, as the subject of this book, to the study of 
both the learned and the unlearned. 
If, as Walt Whitman says : 

"Nothing endures but personal qualities — " 

I am still assured that I am commending to the read- 
er the study of a rich and splendid life, made so through 
his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, in which per- 
sonal qualities of a high order were dominating factors. 
I believe with Henry Ward Beecher that Christian char- 
acter, rather than personal happiness, is the end of true 
living. To be becoming more and more like Jesus, day by 
day, is the highest achievement of the earthly life. That 
such a life was the high ideal of Dr. Rush is evident, and 
therefore his character and personal qualities, together 
with his learning and service, will long survive his earthly 
career, shining with a God-given light in the galaxy of bis 
fellows, ever reflecting the image and glory of his Master. 
If Christian character, fruiting in goodness and useful- 
ness, rather than glittering gifts, or dazzling splendors, 
or the applause of the populace, constitute true greatness, 
then was Dr. Rush a great man who left behind him an 
influence which will live on to bless men and women in 
other generations yet unborn. 

I am not offering fulsome praise to his memory. I 
design not to lift him above his fellows, but simply to give 
him his rightful place in the history of his day. No 
doubt in common with all mortals he had his weaknesses, 
but they were of such a character and so dominated by 
the Spirit as to emphasize the strength of Christ in his 
life and service. It is said that all genuine emeralds 
have many defects, but these cannot be produced in any 
artificial stone, and herein the defects of the emerald 
prove its genuineness. It is so with the defects in Chris- 
tian character. Notwithstanding their presence, the 
strength of the life proves that behind the defects is 



Christ, giving overcoming power. Verily Christ in us is 
the hope of glory, yea, the hope of usefulness and power in 
the life that now is, as well as for the life that is yet to 
come. 

"We are but organs mute, till the Master touches the keys, 
Very vessels of earth, into which God poureth the wine, 
Harps are we, silent harps, that have hung on the willow 

trees, 
Dumb till our heart strings swell and break with a pulse 

divine." 

But I must not detain you. Let me rather open the 
door to the feast — walk in and revel in all that is so gen- 
erously offered you in the life and service of this beloved 
Christian minister, for there are few fields more interest- 
ing and instructive than the biography of a great man, a 
man who is great in goodness and service. 
In the Master's Service, 

J. Pressley Barrett. 
Dayton, Ohio. 



PART ONE-LIFE AND LETTERS 



CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 

Twenty-five years before the outbreak of the great 
Civil War in America, on a plantation in the sunny climes 
of the Southland, there was born, August 25, 1835, near 
Ashboro, North Carolina, the subject of this memoir. 

Randolph County had been the home of the Rushs 
for almost two generations. They were of English de- 
scent, the great-grandfather of our subject having come 
over from England and settled near Philadelphia ; becom- 
ing founder of the Rush families in America. 

Benjamin Rush, grandfather of Henry Y., emigrated 
from Philadelphia to North Carolina and settled in Ran- 
dolph County. A lameness prevented him from active 
service in the Revolutionary War, but he became an offi- 
cer in the Home Guards. He was a cousin to Dr. Benja- 
min Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Dr. Rush was one of the most distinguished 
physicians of his day, and won honors also as a politi- 
cian. He introduced before the Provincial Conference of 
Pennsylvania a resolution setting forth the necessity of a 
declaration of independence from the mother country. 
This resolution was unanimously adopted by the Confer- 
ence the last of June, 1776, and when the Declaration of 
Independence was adopted a few days later he was one of 
the first to affix his signature to that historic document. 



16 LIFE AND LETTERS 

He showed himself a real hero during the famous 
yellow fever plague in Philadelphia in 1793, receiving 
therefor testimonials of recognition from kings and em- 
perors in Europe. 

He was a devout advocate of the Christian religion, 
and drafted the Constitution of the Philadelphia Bible 
Society, leaving at his death an unfinished work on "The 
Medicine of the Bible." 

SLAVERY 

Benjamin Rush, grandfather of Henry, w T as a wealthy 
planter and slaveholder. His wife, Dorcas Vickery, be- 
longed to one of the old and prominent families of that 
section. They were members of the Methodist Church, 
while in politics they were staunch Whigs. One son 
served seven consecutive terms in the Legislature of North 
Carolina as a representative of the Whig party. The 
family exerted a wide local influence in party affairs, and 
w r hen the trouble arose which threatened to cleave the 
nation in twain, and which culminated finally in a great 
civil strife, nearly all the representatives of the Rush 
name became adherents to the Union cause. 

HIS FATHER 

Azel Rush, the father of our subject, was reared on 
the home plantation of his native state, and came into 
possession of a large plantation. He was also a slave 
owner. He was an ardent member of the Methodist 
Church in early life, but later he identified himself with 
the Society of Friends. 

He was married to a lady of excellent family, Sarah 
Young, a native of Randolph County, where she was rear- 
ed and educated. She was a member of the Friends. 

Unto them were born three sons — Thomas E., Henry 






PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 17 

Y., and Noah. The father prospered in the management 
of his plantation, but the system of enslaved labor became 
odious in his sight, after he accepted the principles of 
the Friends and their opposition to human slavery. So 
strong did this conviction become in Azel's mind that he 
voluntarily set all his slaves free. This humane act took 
place in 1834, the year before Henry's birth. He after- 
ward sent most of his former slaves to Wayne County, 
Ind., and assisted them in securing homes. Two of them 
however, were so attached to their former master that 
they would not leave him. 

APPRENTICESHIP AND SCHOOL DAYS 

When eleven years of age Henry was put to serve as 
an apprentice in a printing office in Ashboro for a term of 
two years. This knowledge proved helpful to him long 
years after when he became editor and publisher. 

The great ambition of the lad in the late forties was 
not to become a printer, but first of all to acquire an edu- 
cation. Hence we find him at thirteen entering the 
Brooks Male Academy in Ashboro where he remained for 
two years. What the educational advantages were in a 
school of that grade in that day we are unable to say, but 
doubtless the young lad here laid the foundation for 
future attainments in education which were valuable to 
him. Diligence and care were early evidences of excel- 
lence and painstaking labor in later life. 

FATHER EMIGRATES TO INDIANA 

When Henry was about fifteen years old his father 
emigrated to Grant County, Indiana, in 1850, where he 
purchased about five hundred acres of rich land, which he 
afterward improved, transforming it from a wild uncul- 
tivated tract into a highly cultivated and improved farm. 



18 



LIFE AND LETTERS 



This overland journey must have been made in wagons 
across mountain ranges, rivers and swollen streams, 
through sparsely settled regions, where wild game abound- 
ed, and doubtless required some weeks. Such experiences 
helped to school the young lad in hardships and adven- 
tures which helped to develop a spirit of hardihood and 
self-reliance. 

Azel Rush was a member of the old Whig party until 
that was merged into the Republican party, of which he 
became a loyal supporter remaining such until his death, 
which took place at the ripe age of eighty years. 

The two brothers afterward became well-to-do farm- 
ers in Indiana, but Henry pursued his educational career 
with unabated ardor, for his soul yearned for the things 
that enrich mind and heart. 



CHAPTER II 

EDUCATIONAL PURSUITS 

After the family became settled in their western home, 
the father gave all his energies to the management and 
improvement of his large and fertile farm. Home life 
in that section of Indiana in the early fifties was not sur- 
rounded with many real comforts, and there were almost 
no luxuries, but each member of the family had to assist 
in the hard struggle for an existence, as it really was, 
with some; or in the laying of a foundation for future 
wealth and prosperity with others. 

But life's ambitions lead along various paths, yet 
while some see only the material possessions of life, and 
hence put forth all their efforts to secure first, houses, 
lands, stocks, and other forms of wealth; another, some- 
times in the same family, with similar training and en- 
vironment has a passion for that which leads to the 
training of the mind, the acquisition of knowledge, the at- 
tainment of supremacy over self, in order to prepare for 
greater usefulness and the achievement of life's higher 
ideals. Such "seek first the kingdom of God and His 
righteousness" and the other blessings come in later years. 
It was so with young Henry. After spending some 
months in labor on his father's farm, he again entered 
school, this time in the Friend's High School at Back 
Creek. This school was taught by Prof. Wm. Neil, whose 
training aided the youth in further laying the foundation 
for a future education. He spent one year in this school, 
being now about fifteen years of age. 



20 LIFE AND LETTERS 

( 
DO AN ACADEMY 

He next became a student in Doan Academy at Ma- 
rion, Indiana. Educational work sixty years ago in por- 
tions of the West lacked much in the splendid advantages 
of the present day, both in methods and equipment. Yet 
the Academy training in some schools even of that day 
had a thoroughness and genuineness which enabled the 
young man of earnest purpose to gain a good education. 

Henry was both diligent and eager for an education, 
and while in Doan he fitted himself for teaching. 
He began teaching when quite young and soon earned 
enough money to enter college, having taught in select and 
day schools about one year. 

ANTIOCH COLLEGE 

A new era of opportunity now opened up in the ca- 
reer of this ambitious youth. A great institution sprang 
up in the early fifties, founded by a people which had then 
stood for half a century for religious liberty and freedom 
of thought. The rise and growth of this institution, with 
one of the most distinguished educators of the past cen- 
tury as its first president, marked an epoch in the educa- 
tional history of the middle west. 

Antioch College was the outgrowth of the great ambi- 
tion of its founders to establish an institution of high 
rank where equal privileges were to be given for the first 
time to both sexes. 

With high hopes for the future success of the newly 
founded institution, its founders, the Christians, very 
wisely chose Horace Mann as its first president. This 
choice was made in September, 1852, and it so happened 
that the call came to him the same day in which he was 
nominated for Governor of Massachusetts by the Free 



EDUCATIONAL PURSUITS 21 

\ 

Soil Party. Failing in the election, he chose the work 
for which he was so eminently fitted both by nature and 
training, and entered upon his career as President of An- 
tioch College the same year. 

He found the college in a chaotic state financially. 
The work to be accomplished in organizing and putting 
in order the college forces in such a virgin soil was a pro- 
digious task. 

The high ideals and noble spirit of its great leader 
had many difficulties to encounter, and severe trials to 
endure before the college was put upon its feet. Many of 
the rooms were not finished, not even plastered, and prac- 
tically no equipments for successful school work were yet 
furnished. After the teachers had been chosen the 
finances failed. The president willingly endured great 
privations, denying himself of many even of the necessi- 
ties of life that he might aid the struggling institution and 
help poor students. 

The founders of the new college had fond ambitions 
to launch an institution which would extend equal priv- 
ileges to all, regardless of race, color, sex, or condition in 
life. 

Had their financial ability and foresight equaled their 
cherished ideals and lofty ambitions, they might have 
established an institution that w r ould have remained an 
honor and a permanent influence for good among the peo- 
ple through whom it came into existence. 

Horace Mann gave the best strength of his great and 
noble manhood, physical and mental, to the building up 
of the school which soon rose to the front rank of educa- 
tional institutions west of the Alleghanies. He was en- 
couraged and endorsed by some men of large and liberal 
minds found among the people who were the founders of 
the college ; and some ministers of the Christian name who 



22 LIFE AND LETTERS 

were able to appreciate his high ideals and worthy under- 
taking stood by him throughout the struggle. 

One of these loyal helpers was that pure and saintly 
man of God, Dr. Austin Craig, then pastor of the Bloom- 
ing Grove, N. Y., church. He was a man of scholarly 
attainments; rare insight and genius for the great truths 
of God; yet plain, simple and unassuming in his manner 
and habits, having the polish of a true gentleman, while 
possessing the learning and classical training of the 
scholar. He and Mann were on the most intimate terms, 
and the correspondence carried on between them for some 
years reveals a friendship, an intimacy, a grandeur of 
thought and ideals, with a beauty, sincerity, and purity 
of language and purpose in life, which is rare, yet most 
refreshing and inspiring. 

Craig had been proffered a professorship in the new 
institution, which he declined, much to the pain and dis- 
appointment of his warm friend and admirer, for Horace 
Mann craved his companionship and co-operation in the 
college work. But Dr. Craig esteemed the work he was 
doing in his pastorate and pulpit at Blooming Grove, of 
"teaching," as he puts it, "a band of ingenious young men 
and women the great principles of physical, intellectual 
and spiritual health," as the greatest work of all others 
which he chose to do. 

He did, however, deliver a course of lectures at the 
college; also serving as college chaplain, and in 1864, he 
accepted its presidency and served nearly two years. His 
great ambition was to make the college wholly undenom- 
inational. Yet he himself never swerved from his denom- 
inational affiliations, for he preferred that simple and di- 
rect form and service which ever put Christ before creed. 

"I would not go to Antioch," he wrote, "if it was to be 
narrowed by denominational aims. I could have no heart 



EDUCATIONAL PURSUITS 23 

to undertake the presidency unless I might do it in the 
interests of the Christian Church and not of the Chris- 
tian denomination." 

But a work more congenial to the mind and heart of 
Dr. Craig awaited him as first president of a newly found- 
ed institution for the training of young men for the Chris- 
tian ministry. The Christian Biblical Institute, first 
located at Standfordville, N. Y., which was opened in 
October, 1869. 

Henry Rush entered Antioch College in 1852, the year 
of its opening, when he was about seventeen years old. 
One may imagine the high hopes which stirred the mind 
and heart of this aspiring youth as he entered the halls of 
this newly established institution. Although the build- 
ings were not yet completed, yet the impression made 
upon one as they approached the site, with the brick para- 
pets rising in stately grandeur, and the massive main 
building, with the two large dormitories nearby, and the 
rolling, spacious grounds overlooking the picturesque 
stream on the east, the wild glen, with the woodland ex- 
tending eastward, the famous springs of such enormous 
volume flowing with undiminished strength, and rippling 
down toward the creek to flow onward between the pictur- 
esque "cliffs" to mingle with that beautiful stream, the 
Little Miami River. 

All these surroundings of scenic beauty, together with 
the rising glory and great promise of this new college, 
with one of the greatest educators in the land, East or 
West, as its president, were certainly enough to inspire 
an ambitious youth, fired with an unquenchable thirst for 
an education, with great hope, and to fill the mind with 
a deep yearning for imperishable treasures. 

He applied himself with great diligence to his college 



24 LIFE AND LETTERS 

work, working outside school hours at such small jobs as 
he was able to secure in order to bear his expenses. 

This proved too hard a strain upon his physical 
strength and he was compelled after two years to give up 
his college work. During most of the following year he 
devoted his time to teaching school in the country. 

BEGINS PREACHING 

About the time he entered upon his work as a teach- 
er, just following the close of his term in Antioch College, 
he felt a power working within him calling him to the 
ministry of the Gospel of Christ. He obeyed the call to 
this high and holy office and began preaching in Christian 
churches at such times and in such places as opportunity 
offered. 



CHAPTER III 



COURSE AT MEADVILLE 



Having decided to devote his life to the work of the 
ministry, and fully realizing the need of better educa- 
tional qualifications for such a work, and that he should 
more fully equip himself for so sacred a calling, that he 
might become "a workman that needeth not to be asham- 
ed," and that he might be able to give forth messages con- 
taining sharpened and polished arrows of truth, he deter- 
mined to pursue a theological course, and entered in the 
autumn of 1854 Meadville Theological Seminary at Mead- 
ville, Pa. 

This school, which was opened October 1, 1844, was 
the outgrowth of a need felt by the Unitarians, and shared 
in by the Christians also, for an institution which would 
furnish educational privileges to young men preparing for 
the ministry. Denominational or creed limitations were 
not placed upon those entering the school, but the whole 
genius of the movement, and the purposes of its founders 
were to furnish an institution where liberty and freedom 
could be given in preparing for the work of the ministry. 

The first Unitarian church organized west of the Alle- 
ghanies was at Meadville in May, 1829. It was through 
the influence of Mr. H. J. Huidekoper, a Hollander by 
birth, that this church, and afterward the theological 
school, were founded. He was not satisfied with the re- 
ligious instruction of that day as taught in the creed 
churches, but began the study of the Scriptures for him- 
self, untrammeled by creed or dogma. He regarded the 






20 LIFE AND LETTERS 

"Scriptures as being the only safe rule for the Christian's 
faith." This had been one of the cardinal principles of 
the Christian Connection from their origin, about 1800. 

The result of such investigation by Mr. Huidekoper 
was, as he himself says, "I soon acquired clear and defi- 
nite views as to the leading doctrines of the Christian 
religion. But the good I derived from these studies has 
not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the 
Christian doctrines, they created in me a strong and con- 
stantly increasing interest in religion itself, not as a mere 
theory, but as a practical rule of life." 

Mr. Huidekoper gave the tract of land for the sem- 
inary and contributed generously toward the erection of 
the buildings. Rev. James Freeman Clarke speaks of 
Mr. Huidekoper in the following appreciative manner: 
"We have never known any one who seemed to live so 
habitually in the presence of God. 

"The form which his piety mostly took was that of 
gratitude and reliance. His trust in the Divine goodness 
was like that of a child in its mother. His cheerful 
views of this life, and of the next, his simple tastes, his 
enjoyment of nature, his happiness in society, his love for 
children, his pleasure in doing good, his tender affection 
for those nearest to him, — these threw a warm light 
around his last days, and gave his home the aspect of a 
perpetual Sabbath. He was always a student, occupy- 
ing every vacant hour with a book, and so had attained 
a surprising knowledge of biography and history." He 
died in Meadville, May 22, 1854, the same year in which 
Henry Rush entered Meadville Seminary. 

His son, Rev. Frederick Huidekoper, entered upon a 
course at Harvard, but owing to failing eyesight he was 
forced to discontinue his college course. After working 
four years upon a farm and studying a little each day, he 



EARLY MINISTRY 27 

traveled in Europe almost three years, and after his re- 
turn he pursued a private course in theology, taught 
privately a class of students, and in 1844 began work in 
Meadville. He took gratuitous charge from 1845 for 
five years of New Testament instruction in Meadville, and 
of ecclesiastical history on until 1877, serving also as 
librarian and treasurer of the college. He was a man 
of vast learning and research, and became the author of 
"Judaism at Rome," and other works of considerable his- 
torical value. He proposed the plan of the Brookes 
Fund for the distribution of religious works to ministers 
of every name throughout the United States who cared to 
receive such. The plan was carried out under his direc- 
tion for many years, but has recently been abandoned. 
Rev. Huidekoper occupied at different times in the college, 
the chairs of Professor of New Testament and Ecclesias- 
tical History, Hermeneutics, Latin, Greek and German. 

Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins became the first president of 
the Seminary, serving also as pastor of the Unitarian 
church at Meadville, and being professor of Old Testa- 
ment History and Literature; Hebrew and Biblical An- 
tiquities; Natural and Revealed Religion; Mental and 
Moral Philosophy; Systematic Theology; and Pulpit Elo- 
quence. He served ten years as president, closing his 
term in 1856. He was a noble type of Christian manhood, 
combined with rich attainments in learning and scholar- 
ship. 

It was during the term of Dr. Stebbins that Mr. Rush 
entered upon his theological course, in October, 1854, hav- 
ing just entered upon his twentieth year. 

During the earlier period of this institution the 
Christian denomination furnished a considerable propor- 
tion of its students. Having no theological school of 
their own at that time, and strongly imbued with the 






28 LIFE AND LETTERS 

spirit of liberty in religious thought and teaching, they 
found many things in common with early Unitarianism. 
The Christians were represented among the lecturers 
at Meadville, — Rev. David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig, 
D. D., were each honored with that position. While 
among those who graduated from the seminary of the 
Christian body Ave recall, Rev. David E. Millard, D. D., 
now of Portland, Mich. ; Rev. Wm. Beller, now deceased, 
long residing near Lebanon, Ohio; Rev. Thomas Martin 
McWhinney, D. D., LL. D., recently deceased, graduated 
in 1853. Rev. S. S. Newhouse, D. D., at present (1911) 
professor of Homiletics and New Testament Literature in 
the Christian Biblical Institute at Defiance, Ohio, gradu- 
ated in 18G5, and Rev. Henry Y. Rush, D. D., in 1857. 
There were others whose names do not now occur to the 
writer. 

There were many ministers among the Christians, 
especially in the North, who rejected the doctrine of the 
trinity. Yet some were trinitarians, and nearly all held 
a firm faith in the divine Sonship of Christ. Rev. Rush 
through all his life held to the trinitarian faith in a some- 
what modified form. 

Rev. Oliver Stearns was the successor of Dr. Stebbins, 
serving as president from 1856 to 1863. He was a man 
of great moral earnestness, deep personality, warm spirit- 
ual nature and thorough scholarship. Being a good 
academic organizer the school flourished under his admin- 
istration, and Divinity Hall was built. It was during the 
last two years of Dr. Stebbins, and the first year of Dr. 
Stearns that Henry Y. Rush spent his three years' term 
in Meadville. 

The first building for the school was erected through 
the generosity of the elder Huidekoper. The cost to stu- 



EARLY MINISTRY 29 

dents in those early years of the school was but $30.00 
per year for board, instruction, room rent and fuel. 

Among those who lectured before the students in the 
fifties were Rev. Geo. W. Hosrner, Rev. Charles H. Brig 
ham, Rev. A. D. Mayo, Rev. Thomas Hill, D. D., and 
others. 

It was under such instructors and religious leaders 
as have been mentioned, that this young man spent three 
of the most precious and formative years of his life, gradu- 
ating in 1857 not yet twenty-two years of age. 

He now gave his attention to preaching in different 
churches in Miami and Clark Counties in Ohio. 

MARRIAGE 

On April 27, 1858, he was married to Miss Mary J. 
Kepper, daughter of John and Lucinda Kepper. This 
union proved a happy and congenial one, and continued 
in unbroken fidelity and devotion to each other, forming 
a companionship of the truest and holiest type until the 
husband was called to the Home Beyond in the spring of 
1905. Unto them was born one child, a daughter, EflSe 
May, of whom we will make further mention. 

After his marriage he took charge of the West Lib- 
erty Christian church, having previously served the Honey 
Creek church as pastor. He and his beloved companion 
began housekeeping in West Liberty, Ohio, in November, 
1858. He also took charge of the Glady Creek and Mc- 
Kee's Creek churches near by and continued to serve these 
three churches about two years. In the fall of 1859 he 
purchased a home in the village of Christiansburg, Cham- 
paign County, Ohio, and immediately moved into their 
new home. He then took pastoral charge of the Cove 



30 



LIFE AND LETTERS 



Springs and Lost Creek Christian churches. This was 
in the early part of I860, and he continued to serve these 
churches until he entered the army. 




IJeut. H. V. Rush 



CHAPTER IV 



LIFE AS A SOLDIER 



With a pleasant home, a devoted wife, and a sweet 
little girl to cheer and brighten the home and the hearts 
of the fond parents; with the work of preaching, and 
the pastoral care of two parishes to occupy his time, one 
would scarcely expect a young minister to be willing to 
give up all these, and take up the hardships and privations 
of soldier life. Yet when the call came for volunteers, 
and the safety of the Union seemed imperiled, and de- 
fense of our national unity and of the federal govern- 
ment was demanded, this patriotic young minister was 
too loyal to his country's welfare to refuse the call for 
her defense. Hence in July, 1862, he assisted in raising 
a large part of Company E of the 110th Regiment of 
O. V. I. Owing to his activity and loyal spirit in this 
service he was commissioned as first lieutenant by Gov- 
ernor Tod, and entered upon the duties and hardships of 
life as a soldier. Although he willingly entered into the 
service of his country when a great civil strife threatened 
to rend asunder two great sections of it, yet he never took 
pleasure in war, but preferred the ways of peace to the din 
of battle and the carnage of war. The following letter 
written to one of his parishioners expresses the sentiments 
of his heart, and shows the great contrast between life as 
a soldier and the sacred service of the ministry. 

New Creek, Va v Nov. 29, 1862. 
Sister Loudenback : — Your very welcome letter of the 
23d inst came to hand last evening. I was highly gratified 



32 LIFE AND LETTERS 

indeed, in its reception. I was very glad to hear that you 
were all well, and that your father's family were well 
also ; for that family has bestowed very many kind favors 
upon me and my family, for which I shall ever feel most 
tenderly endeared to them, and shall ever express my grat- 
itude and well wishes for them. Your letter revives 
afresh in my mind many fond recollections and associa- 
tions. Oh, how touchingly they come home to my heart ! 
Those friendly visits, those Sabbath gatherings, those 
hymns and prayers, the lowering of happy and loving con- 
verts beneath the waves, and leading them amidst songs 
and greetings to the bank. Ah, how those happy mo- 
ments crowd into my heart and memory ! 

But they have all passed away, and how changed are 
these things now. I realize them perhaps more than you, 
my dear sister, for I am far away from my family and 
friends. I know no Sabbaths, no sanctuaries, no heaven- 
ly gatherings and greetings as I realized them there. War 
is a stranger to these tilings ; its nature and its work are 
peculiar to themselves, and not very inviting in their char- 
acter. 

But duty is sometimes stern and terrifying in its ap- 
pearance, and yet no brave and patriotic man will turn 
his face from it. A sense of duty to my native country 
propelled me from home and friends, and I might as well 
endure the deprivations and hardships of this duty as oth- 
ers. But my anxiety for the churches and loved friends 
I have left behind, is not in the least diminished. I am 
much concerned in their welfare whatever may be my 
otcn fate. I pray that all my brethren and sisters, young 
and old, may live faithful to all their obligations, and 
meet me (how sweet the thought) in heaven above. 

We are now at New Creek (Camp Jessie), Hampshire 
County, Va. We are encamped on the north branch of 
the Potomac, which is the line here between Maryland 
and Virginia. I am in Maryland nearly every day. We 
live in Virginia and burn Maryland wood. Our camp is 
the most beautiful I ever saw. It is in a large valley, 
entirely surrounded with magnificent mountains. There 
are some fifteen thousand troops here, besides cavalry 
and artillery. 



LIFE AS A SOLDIER 33 

On a high hill in the center of the camp is a very 
strong and costly fort. Col. Mulligan commands this 
fort, the same colonel who was captured at Lexington, 
Missouri. We expect to leave here in a few days for a 
tramp towards Richmond; but whether we shall go in 
that direction or not, I cannot say positively. There are 
rebel scouts and bush-whackers brought in frequently. 
We were fired upon the other day. One bullet struck 
"cazip" just before me ; but "a miss is as good as a mile." 
We have been in no battle yet. It looks as if we should 
be soon. We all have very convenient quarters. The 
soldiers have Sibley tents; the officers have wall tents. 
We have nice cedars and pines before our door. They 
are tastefully arranged, and look very home-like. I must 
send you a few leaves from a nice pine before our tent 
door, and if can get some fern leaves across the river be- 
fore mailing my letter, I will send you some. 

Our boys are nearly all of them in good health. Only 
one has died out of our regiment. I really think we have 
a model regiment, and I hope we shall always be at our 
post. Our field and line officers are all good, moral, un- 
assuming men. We are much attached to them. But I 
must close my letter. Perhaps I have already wearied 
your patience. Give my love to your dear parents. Tell 
them that their repeated acts of kindness will never be 
forgotten. Excuse haste and mistakes. 

Your pastor and friend, 

Henry Y. Rush, 
1st Lt. Co. E. 110 Reg. O. V. I. 

P. S. — November 27th. I will mail my letter this 
a. m. Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day. I held two 
meetings last night. I preached for Co. I, and then held 
prayer and social meeting in our own Company E. We 
had excellent meetings, good order and good attention. 
There are many professors of Christianity in our regi- 
ment, and four or five preachers. 

We have no chaplain yet. There are ministers 
enough in the regiment to dispense with the chaplain, and 
save that much for the government, but we may neverthe- 
less have one yet. 



34 LIFE AND LETTERS 

This morning it is snowing rapidly. Inclosed find 
some fern leaves. I got them this morning from a moun- 
tain side in Maryland. You can put them in a book to 
remember your unworthy pastor by, if you choose to do so. 
I could send some curiosities had I any way to convey 
them. Respectfully, H. Y. E. 

His willingness to endure suffering while in the ser- 
vice of his country is shown in the following communica 
tion to the Gospel Herald. 

THREE WEEKS' EXPERIENCE IN THE HOSPITAL 

When I temporarily left the ministry for the military 
service, I hoped that, in addition to the mere defense of 
our country, a varied experience and observation would 
also add somewhat to my Christian enjoyment and useful- 
ness. I trust that my anticipations are being realized, 
and that our series of hardships and sufferings may be 
divinely sanctified to the cultivation of a more Christ-like 
character. The realization of this benefit is necessarily 
attended with some suffering and self-denial. The un- 
alloyed metal cannot be separated from the ore without 
the terrible heat of the furnace. Without the pruning 
knife, the vine will not bend under the weight of a luxur- 
iant harvest. May we not hence infer that the richer 
fruits of military experience are ripened amid affliction in 
the hospitals? Such is doubtless the case, and incidents 
well authenticated confirm the truth. Cases of conver- 
sion have occurred, evidently attributable to influences 
brought to bear upon the sinner while in the hospital. 
To say nothing of a chaplain's labors, or the power of 
tracts over the sick, there is yet another influence not to 
be lost sight of. It is the mind, the conscience — all the 
reflective powers of man's inner nature — separated from 
the din and giddiness of Camp, and let loose upon them- 
selves. Now opens a court of self -inquiry ; and such an 
accusing and excusing of conscience is without parallel, 
except in similar cases of divine awakening. To the 
afflicted soldier a striking transition has occurred. The 
din and noise of camp are hushed. He is in a "ward" 
of sick and suffering comrades. Instead of the familiar 



LIFE AS A SOLDIER 35 

sounds of drum and fife, groans and sighs fall strangely 
upon his ears. Nearly every sound may be an expression 
of pain, homesickness, loneliness. He hears the death 
struggle of a comrade on the couch next his own. He 
turns and beholds the nurses setting the eyes and jaws of 
a yet warm corpse. — Soon a sheet is wrapped about the 
cold form, and it is borne forth to the "dead-house." 
Conflicting thoughts of home, wife, children, mother, 
death ! rush in upon the minds of those who are left. A 
Heavenly Father is now near to overrule reflections, con- 
victions, forebodings, and dark scenes to the spiritual 
good of the sufferers. The result frequently is that all 
earthly dependence is lost sight of, and a soul, conscious 
of its utter helplessness, throws itself entirely upon the 
promises of Christ. Such conversions are the fruit of 
much affliction, and many heart-searching reflections ; but 
"what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" But 
just at this point I am haunted with my faithlessness in 
deathbed conversions, though doubtless some are real. 
I must therefore warn my unconverted readers to avoid 
such dangerous delay. 

What I have written above is part of my three weeks' 
observation and experience in the hospital. But might 
it not be thought an unwarranted omission to say nothing 
of my own realizations and personal experience while 
here? The Savior demands my testimony; and it is all 
to His own glory. The power and goodness I so often 
have preached to others, have been realized more glorious- 
ly than ever described by my faltering tongue. In this 
unexpected way, time has been given me to review the 
Scriptures, and behold new beauty in their teachings, and 
greater glory in their promises. 

If it be the divine will, may I yet be spared to assist 
further in putting down this rebellion, and then return 
home to aid in building up a stricter loyalty of hearts and 
hands to the Great Protector of our Banner and our 
blessings. 

Winchester, Va., Feb. 17, 1863. 



36 LIFE AND LETTERS 

The following letter of recommendation is interesting 
and bears the testimony of his army chaplain to the high 
character and universal esteem of Lieutenant Rush. 

Piqua, Ohio, October 20, 1863. 
To whom it may concern. 

I hereby certify that I am personally acquainted with 
1st Lt. Henry Y. Rush, — have been with him in the camp, 
on the field and in the din of battle. His moral character 
is unimpeachable, his devotion to the cause of his country 
unwavering, and his courage undaunted. 

He has the confidence and esteem of all the officers 
and men of the 110th Regt. O. V. I. in which he has served 
faithfully. Very respectfully, etc. 

James Harvey, 
Chaplain 110th Regt. O. V. I. 

His letters home are filled with his warm love and 
devotion to the loved ones left behind, and are also exceed- 
ingly interesting and valuable descriptions of soldier life 
in field and camp, and on the long, weary marches. We 
here insert one of these letters which describes in vivid 
language the extreme hardships of the march and the dan- 
gers of battle. 

A LETTER TO HIS WIFE 

Camp Winchester, Va., April 14, 1863. 

Dear Wife: — We safely returned last night about 
dark from the scout of which I wrote you at midnight be 
fore we started. This was the origin of the march. Our 
cavalry had been out fifteen miles the day before, in the 
direction of Capon Springs. They got into a fight and 
were overpowered. So our regiment and two companies 
of the 122d were sent out to meet the rebels. We got 
there, skirmished the woods and hills in the vicinity of 
the fight, but could not find the rebels. We found the 



LIFE AS A SOLDIER 37 

corpse of one of our cavalrymen in a citizen's house. It 
had been left there, they said, for them to bury. Close to 
where the fight took place we found a wagon turned over 
by the roadside. It w r as full of sole leather and the 
harness were also lying there. We put these into the am- 
bulance and took them with us. It was a nice lot of leath 
er. After searching for the rebels some time at this place 
we passed around the hill and up the mountain through 
the woods until we came to the road leading down the 
mountain side. We followed the road about two miles and 
turned to the left into a farm ; from this we entered the 
woods — a woods of scrubby timber and thick underbrush, 
briers, etc. We supposed from all we could learn, that 
the rebels might be concealed in one of these places. We 
went on through the woods, down into deep hollows, up 
the steep hills, winding round and round, finally coming 
to Cedar river, at the foot of a very steep hill. We were 
all fagged and wet with sweat, but we off with our boots 
and stockings and plunged in. It was nearly waist deep 
and cold as ice. We all got over safely, but such a hollow- 
ing, cheering and laughing, as those 1,500 men made as 
they plunged through the stream you never heard. All 
got over safe and just by the river there was a farm and 
a large brick dwelling near by. Here our cavalry fed with 
hay from the old farmer's stable and we all took dinner. 
There was about six hundred cavalry with us. We 
built fires with fence rails and got some warm coffee 
that stimulated us very much. But here it commenced 
raining and rained all the afternoon. From here we w r ent 
up a hill and entered the woods again, but soon got into 
a narrow road just wide enough for our ambulances. This 
road led to the top of a long range of mountains, and fol- 
lowed the summit for miles and was tolerably level. We 



38 LIFE AND LETTERS 

traveled this road till it led us down the end of a moun- 
tain and followed a branch that wound between the hills. 

It was about dark now, after going a mile or so far- 
ther we were halted till the cavalry scouted in our ad- 
vance, to see if there was any rebel force near, and till 
arrangements were made about camping the men over 
night. While stopping here the men sat and lay down in 
the mud, — so tired and exhausted. I looked for a stone to 
sit on, but, being too dark to find it, and too tired to stand, 
I sank down into the mud and came near falling asleep 
during the twenty-five or thirty minutes we stayed in this 
position. From this place we climbed over the fence to 
the right, went up a big hill (a field) and were drawn up 
in line of battle and dismissed to sleep in line all night, 
with no fire, not even a pipe to be smoked, and no noise, 
or anything that might reveal to the enemy our where- 
abouts. Just think what a place, what a night, what a 
condition we were in for sleeping, — fagged almost to 
death, wet to the skin with sweat and rain, a bare, muddy 
ground to lie on; no covering but one gum blanket, and 
no bed but the ground, and yet too tired to stand, or 
even to sit, so lay down we must though death be the re- 
sult. 

Well, I tell you how we managed it. We spread down 
in a row our thin gum blankets which were all wet with 
rain. We piled down on these spoon-fashion, just as tight 
as we could wedge in between each other, hoping at least 
to be warm before and behind. But not so, for every man 
was wet through and had not warmth for his own comfort, 
and none of course for his comrade. We lay here and 
shivered and chattered our teeth all night. I could hear 
the teeth chattering all along our line, and some so fast 
that you could not understand what they tried to say. 
Old father Line got up and tried to get warm by exercise, 






LIFE AS A SOLDIER 39 

but he was so chilled he could not walk, and trembled so 
I could hardly understand what he tried to say. I lay on 
the same side all night, and it seemed as if I could feel 
cold and damp striking through my system like ice. Had 
I been lying on ice I could not have been colder, it seemed 
to me. Such a long night I never before saw. In the 
morning when we got up we were still wet to the skin, 
and many were unable for a while to walk. For my part 
I could scarcely stand, and made several attempts before 
I could walk. About daylight we were permitted to build 
fires and I assure you we made good use of the fence rails 
about that time. We made big fires and dried our clothes 
and then got breakfast. I drank about a quart of strong 
coffee. It warmed me up and made me feel better than 
before, but I soon got sick. I was standing with my back 
to the fire, by the side of Mc Anally, and took sick and 
dizzy and came near falling over, but I stooped down and 
got seated on my gum blanket and soon began to feel bet- 
ter again. 

We left the camp about eight o'clock, and I marched 
all day and stood it pretty well. But others, less able to 
travel than myself, got into the ambulance, or "played 
out," as the boys say. I stood the trip back pretty well. 
I did not wade the river on my return. We crossed just 
where we took dinner. You will find the place marked on 
the map. We took dinner in a nice level bottom, at the 
edge of which stood a large iron furnace, built of stone, 
about twenty-five feet high and eighty feet in diameter. 
It is known to be about 125 years old. Bushes are grow- 
ing on the top, and an elm tree of some considerable size. 
It is a beautiful country along here, being in the Shenan- 
doah mountains. There is a large fine stone house close to 
where we took dinner. They said here they would not 
care for soldiers passing there if they all conducted them- 



40 LIFE AND LETTERS 

selves as well as we did. After getting back, and getting 
cooled off I was so stiff that it was almost impossible for 
me to w^alk. My toes and feet were blistered in several 
places, and ached so badly I could not lie still or go to 
sleep for sometime after going to bed. But when I got 
to sleep I knew nothing till morning. I had slept none for 
two nights. I feel pretty well this morning, except sore- 
ness. Is it not almost a miracle if I keep well after this 
terrible exposure? If I do, I shall feel abundantly thank- 
ful. This is a beautiful morning, but it is pretty cool for 
the time of year. 

The rebels are coming in and carrying off all the 
white citizens they can and putting them into their army. 
The man's son who lived just by where we camped had 
been forced away by some cavalry, and taken to the army. 
When we were eating dinner yesterday an old man and 
his wife passed us in a two-horse wagon with a few arti- 
cles of furniture in it. They were going to Winchester, 
Martinsburg, and then to the north. All their children had 
been forced into the rebel army, and their own lives threat- 
ened and their property taken and they were afraid to 
stay at home any longer. Don't talk about trouble and 
hard times in the North. Just think of what the people 
have to suffer here. Just think of the many families in 
Winchester and all over Virginia that have not a bed in 
their house, and their innocent children, like Effie, hang- 
ing to their mother's tattered garments and crying for a 
piece of bread. These are common, every-day scenes here. 
I know of large houses and once well-furnished, that have 
not a bed in now. Many families in the country have not 
an axe to chop their wood. When out foraging we saw an 
old meat axe an old grey-bearded man used to knaw his 
wood off as it were. I have been made to shed tears when 



LIFE AS A SOLDIER 41 

I saw these things, for it is far different in effect to look 
upon them than simply to read about them. 

There are other things I would like to write about 
but I am actually too tired to write more, and you must 
excuse me with these two sheets of imperfect writing. 
But I must tell you that Lt. Dehaven has got back from 
Richmond. He escaped by slipping off. I will tell you 
all about it at another time. He is dismissed from the 
service. 

I hope these imperfect lines will find your health im- 
proving and find Effie and all the rest well. I will see you 
in June, and perhaps sooner, if I live, and nothing hap- 
pens. Write often. 

From your affectionate husband, 

H. Y. Rush. 

P. S. — One of Capt. Mcllwain's men deserted while 
we were on this march. He had been left in camp. His 
family was said to be very sick, and he could get no fur- 
lough. He will be telegraphed at Springfield and arrested 
and brought back. Such is war. 

P. S. — Please let me know whether you get a letter 
from me with about three dollars in sheets of postage cur- 
rency. I sent them to you, thinking they would be a very 
nice present and a great convenience to you in buying 
articles for family use, etc. 

Excuse my many mistakes, for I have not time to 
read my letter and correct them. 

Love and kisses for Effie. 



After two years of strenuous service in the army, he 
found that the hardships and exposure, long marches, 
scouting and battles of the war proved too much for his 
constitution to bear, and he was compelled to retire from 



42 LIFE AND LETTERS 

the service. He was given an honorable discharge in 
October, 1864, and returned to his peaceful home and the 
quiet of private life, and domestic felicity. Yet he could 
not long remain inactive, but soon resumed the work of 
the ministry again, taking charge of the Cove Springs and 
Lost Creek churches. In the spring of 1866 he purchased 
property in Tippecanoe City and moved there April 17, 
1866. 

He was then editing a weekly religious paper, the 
Gospel Herald, having been chosen editor the year pre- 
vious, 1865. 



CHAPTER V. 

EDITORIAL CAREER 

From the hardships and stirring scenes of army life 
Rev. Rush was called to a work of a very different kind, 
yet one for which he was eminently fitted and which was 
most congenial to his tastes and literary ambitions, that 
of editing a weekly religious paper, the Gospel Herald. 
"This paper was established by the Ohio Christian Book 
Association in 1843, with Rev. Isaac N. Walter as its ed- 
itor." After an itinerary life of about twenty-five years, 
("including as places of issuance, Springfield, Yellow 
Springs, Columbus and Eaton, its headquarters were es- 
tablished in Dayton about May 1, 1865. It had numbered 
on its editorial list such gifted men as I. N. Walter, James 
Williamson, James W. Marvin, James Maple, Levi Pur- 
viance, N. Summerbell, John Ellis and H. Y. Rush." But 
as "neither the Herald of Gospel Liberty nor the Gospel 
Herald fully met the demands of the denomination, plans 
were made to consolidate the two papers. This was accom- 
plished at a meeting of the Christian Publishing Associa- 
tion, held at Hagerstown, Ind., November 19, 1867. The 
two papers were united January 4, 1868, under the name 
of the Herald of Gospel Liberty, with headquarters at 
Dayton, Ohio. Rev. Henry Y. Rush was made editor of 
this paper with Rev. D. P. Pike associate editor, and the 
paper became the general denominational organ of the 
Christians." (Taken from Rev. D. B. Atkinson's article 
on The Herald of Gospel Liberty — A History, in volume 
"The Centennial of Religious Journalism") 



44 LIFE AND LETTERS 

Rev. Rush now had a field of usefulness opened before 
him which called forth all his talents and strength. With 
the pastoral care of two churches, and the editing of the 
general denominational paper he found sufficient scope 
for the exercise of all his powers, both as a preacher and a 
writer. The work of the ministry lay very near his heart 
and he had no desire to give up preaching now that he 
had become an editor. About this time, or a little before 
(1866) he had taken charge of the Shiloh Springs and 
Trotwood Christian churches, both near Dayton, and he 
continued to preach for these churches until he was called 
to the Franklin pastorate in November, 1878. The policy 
of the paper under the editorship of Rev. Rush may be 
briefly summed up in his own language in the following 
editorial extract : 

a To maintain the peace and harmony of the brother 
hood; to allow all possible liberty of discussion that shall 
not involve ill temper and undue personality; to exclude 
from the paper all forms of liberalism, and all ingenious 
outcroppings of infidelity; to make it the preacher of a 
pure gospel, and the promoter of personal, domestic, and 
church piety ; to recognize the labors and usefulness of the 
fathers, the vast good being done from city to remotest 
wilderness by the large number of pious, zealous, devoted 
ministers who never had the advantages of literary edu- 
cation — an advantage or disadvantage, just as the mind 
and heart are sacredly consecrated to Christly labors; to 
speak well of all good, industrious, useful ministers and 
laymen ; to make as many and as earnest pleas as practica- 
ble for our schools and colleges; to give the fullest possi- 
ble account of revival intelligence; of churches organized 
and dedicated; to make the paper a church paper, a de- 
nominational paper, a people's paper, keeping it alive with 



EDITORIAL CAREER 45 

our own work as a people rather than a scientific, specu- 
lative, or a dogmatic journal." 

He wrote on a varied class of subjects in its editorial 
columns, and always with candor, earnestness, loyalty to 
truth, consecration to his Master's work, and a graceful- 
ness and beauty of diction which marked all his writings 
and pulpit discourse. He was not fond of controversy, 
but avoided all bitterness and wrangling disputation. 

Being a staunch defender of the inspiration, integrity, 
and divine authenticity of the Bible, he ever remained a 
conservative interpreter and teacher on religious and theo- 
logical questions. Such subjects as, The Book of Books, 
Religious Revivals, German Theology, Love of Brethren, 
What Our Position Implies, The Glory of Pentecost, Our 
Mission, Mystery in Religion, and kindred topics were 
those which engaged his pen most. 

Those were days when controversy and debated ques- 
tions were favorite themes with many ministers in the 
pulpit and through the press, hence it was difficult for the 
editor of a religious paper to hold in check the hot-spirited 
correspondents who often clamored for a place in its 
columns. By endeavoring to keep the paper up to a high 
standard of usefulness as the denominational organ of the 
Christians, he avoided many of the errors and pitfalls 
which sometimes make religious journalism shadowy or 
unsavory. 

He preferred to build up and strengthen the things 
which make for truth, love and peace, rather than to allow 
any root of bitterness to spring up, or any doubtful teach- 
ing to unsettle the faith of some. 

It was no easy task for one occupying the editorial 
chair to satisfy all classes of would-be writers. The mod- 
est, careful, and judicious class would not prove trouble- 
some; but those who wanted to advocate their particular 



46 LIFE AND LETTERS 

theories, or promulgate their peculiar doctrines, or venti- 
late their pet notions, however crude, unlettered, or unsci- 
entific they might be if denied the privilege would surely 
feel hurt and bring the editor to task for "omitting to 
publish such important articles." But the best interests 
of the paper as a religious journal must be always upper- 
most in the mind of the editor, and its great mission to 
instruct, to inspire, to comfort, to uplift and save men, 
should govern its policy and management. 

Rev. Rush sought to be wholly impartial and to 
make the paper helpful to the people among whom it cir- 
culated. He was a clear and graceful writer himself. The 
versatility of his pen, the manner in which he treated 
public questions, the kind sympathies of his heart for 
those in distress or grief, made his editorials, as well as 
his sermons, a source of great helpfulness to his readers 
and hearers. Referring to his editorial career he writes : 
"My record of thirteen years in that service is before the 
Lord, and as to honest, prayerful effort to fit it for divine 
scrutiny, no part of my life has been so laboriously de- 
voted and no period of it affords me pleasanter recollec- 
tions." 

He continued to edit the paper until January, 1877, a 
period of thirteen years, when he resigned and the next 
year after (in October, 1878) he accepted a call to become 
pastor of the church at Franklin, Ohio. The year pre- 
vious (1877) he bought a lot and built them a home in 
Dayton, into which they moved that summer. He still 
continued to preach one-half time at Shiloh Springs, near 
Dayton. About this time he took charge of the Sugar 
Creek Christian Church in Greene County, Ohio, where he 
preached once per month until he was called to Franklin. 
The writer well remembers his ministry at this place, and 
how we used to take notes as the preacher proceeded to 



EDITORIAL CAREER 47 

set forth his clear and definitely outlined discourse, for 
already license had been granted me to preach also. Many 
times have we thought if we could only preach as he did 
we would be filled with joy and satisfaction. 

It was in 1879 that Rev. H. Y. Rush, together with 
the two venerable ministers, Rev. Isaiah Scott and Rev. 
Peter Banta, all now passed to their reward, at the old 
Sugar Creek Church, my own home church, one Sabbath 
afternoon in the autumn season, laid their hands upon my 
head, and with fervent prayer and earnest, sympathetic 
words, set me apart to the work of the Gospel ministry. 
Brother Rush was at that time pastor of the church at 
Franklin. 

Through his kindly interest in me a few years late* 
he invited me to fill his pulpit at Franklin one Sunday 
while he was in attendance at the meeting of the Board 
of Trustees of The Christian Biblical Institute at Stan- 
fordville, N. Y. He was a charter member of the Board, 
and remained on the same until his death. His editorial 
career having ended, he now devoted all his time to the 
ministry. 



CHAPTER VI 

PASTORAL WORK AT FRANKLIN AND WEST MILTON 

Rev. Rush was in full possession of his matured pow- 
ers when he became pastor of the church at Franklin, be- 
ing a little past forty-three. He had passed through 
some of life's varied and character-forming experiences, 
such as working on the farm, teaching, preaching, taking 
a theological course, serving as pastor of several country 
and village churches, spending two years of hard service 
in the army, building a home, with twelve years of edi- 
torial work as editor of The Herald of Gospel Liberty, the 
oldest religious weekly paper in the United States ; having 
been first founded in September, 1808, by Elias Smith. 

This varied experience and development of talent 
with the discipline of all life's best and noblest qualities, 
had fitted him in mind and heart for the sacred ministries 
of pulpit and pastoral work. His sermons were carefully 
prepared, and evinced much careful thought and prepara- 
tion. His manuscripts were models of neat, well-arranged, 
well-written discourses, often printed and ornamented by 
the use of different colored inks, in a beautiful ornamental 
penmanship. His thought was varied, his scriptural 
interpretations were orthodox, and yet infused with a 
spirit of charity and freedom from formalism, his illus- 
trations were drawn from a wide range of reading and 
observation, and filled with a beauty, simplicity and nat- 
uralness which was pleasing to his hearers, while they at 
the same time carried home the truths which he sought to 
teach. 



50 LIFE AND LETTERS 

The Franklin church had been blest with the minis- 
trations of such devout and able men as Revs. Nathan 
Worley, Richard Simonton and David Purviance, and 
later by Rev. James Maple, D. D., and Rev. T. M. Mc- 
Whinney, D. D. It was under the leadership of Dr. 
McWhinney that the present large, brick structure was 
erected, which was dedicated in November, 1872, Rev. 
A. W. Coan preaching the dedicatory sermon. 

Dr. McWhinney's pastorate covered seven years, 
while that of his predecessor, Dr. James Maple, lasted 
twenty-two years, being the longest Christian pastorate at 
that time in the West. 

Rev. Rush, as the successor of Dr. McWhinney, con- 
tinued to preach for them almost ten years. 

The congregation then and just prior was a large 
and wealthy one, composed in large part of well-to-do 
farmers of the better class. But a decline set in when 
these older members gradually passed away by death, and 
the homesteads were broken up and the families scattered. 

This decline afterward became so marked and deplor- 
able, and the church became so shorn of its former 
strength that in recent years but a few remained to hold 
the organization from complete dissolution and disband- 
ment. However, much to the joy of the faithful few, 
late in the autumn of 1909, Rev. H. J. Rhodes took hold 
of the work and over one hundred and fifty new members 
have been added to their number and the church greatly 
strengthened and quickened into new activity. 

Rev. Rush has left many beautiful and interesting 
written sermons as monuments of his careful pulpit prep- 
aration while at Franklin. He preached a number of 
times before the congregations at the monthly Sunday 
evening union services held in the different churches of 
this little city, and always with honor to himself, to his 



PASTORAL WORK 51 

own local church, and to the denomination which he rep- 
resented. He also delivered several Memorial sermons 
before the Grand Army, and Decoration Day addresses. 
Having been a soldier himself, he was in full sympathy 
with his comrades who had served in the same great cause. 
He knew what it was to endure hardships in camp, on the 
field of battle, and during the long marches. He preach- 
ed many funerals, and ministered at the bedside of the 
sick, thus becoming very much endeared to his people. 
But almost ten years of close and faithful pastoral work 
told on his strength and in 1888 he resigned his work at 
Franklin and moved to 

WEST MILTON 

He had previously fitted up a very pleasant home 
in this beautiful village, where he and Mrs. Kush lived in 
most congenial companionship until he was called to the 
heavenly home in 1905. 

He served as pastor of the West Milton Christian 
Church some years after he settled there. He also preach- 
ed for the Ludlow Falls church, and other churches near 
West Milton. 

Their only daughter, Effie May, had been given the 
best educational advantages within the wisdom and abil- 
ity of her devoted parents. And after graduating with 
honor at the age of eighteen in the Glendale Female Col- 
lege at Glendale near Cincinnati, she afterward became 
the wife of Mr. Daniel H. Pfoutz, of Trotwood, Ohio. 
Mr. and Mrs. Pfoutz were residing in a beautiful home in 
Trotwood while the writer was pastor of the Christian 
Church there in 1880-81, and were regular attendants, 
and attentive, appreciative listeners during my ministry 
there. Mr. Pfoutz was then engaged in business in the vil- 
lage, and taught the Bible Class in the Sunday-school, 



52 LIFE AND LETTERS 

but now (1911) resides in Dayton, Ohio, where he has 
been engaged in a prosperous legal profession for many 
years. Effie still keeps up her French and German and is 
an accomplished woman of high order. Yet she attends to 
her household affairs and domestic duties regularly and 
systematically. She is proficient in composition, has good 
literary taste, and might achieve honor as a writer for 
popular, and literary magazines if she desired. 

Just preceding and during his early pastorate at 
Franklin he issued a small paper for a short time, devoted 
to reading suited to Christian homes, called the "People's 
Home Journal" but this was too expensive an experiment 
to be long continued, and hence was abandoned. A small 
collection of choice hymns and sacred songs w T as also ed 
ited and privately published by him about the year 1876, 
called "Spiritual Hymns." 

THE CHRISTIAN SUN 

In the year 1882 he was made Corresponding Editor 
of the Christian Sun, that excellent representative of the 
Christian denomination in the South, and issued in bifc 
own native state. I quote from his "Salutatory" dated 
December 1, 1882. 

"Pastoral responsibility, together with obligations to 
other journals, makes imperative demands upon my time. 
This additional duty is accepted from several considera- 
tions. 

"1, My interest in the Sun. It has come to my 
fireside many years. We see in familiar faces the friends 
most dear to us. In comparison with other religious fam- 
ily papers, no other excels it in the excellence of its read- 
ing matter, its brotherly spirit, its uniform breathing of 
the Master's mind. 

"2. There has been no period within the history of 



PASTORAL WORK 53 

the Christians, South, when a well-supported church pa- 
per has been in such demand as now. 

"3. While the church North is feeling the need of a 
still better support of the Herald of Gospel Liberty, my 
interest in the brethren South leads me as I am able to 
help start the Christian Sun upon a grander career of 
enlightening, unifying, soul-saving influence. 

"4. North Carolina being my native state contrib- 
utes something to my interest in the brethren South. 

"May the Sun ring silvery and clear through all those 
sunny states and be heard in many Northern homes. 
May it everywhere win honest minds to the truth of 
Christ, and mold a multitude of hearts into the image of 
the all-glorious Son of God." 

His people at Franklin were very kind to their pastor 
and gave him a vacation during the hot summer season. 
His articles written for the local paper of these summer 
outings are full of interest and charm, and show the close 
observer he was, and his fine descriptive powers. 

He was very fond of good music, and greatly enjoyed 
excellent singing. One of our own evangelistic singers 
assisted once in a service at the Christian Church in his 
own village. He very appreciatively commended the sing- 
er after the meeting, but said, "I hope the next time you 
sing the organist will not try to 'show off' for we want to 
hear you sing." 




z 



X 
m 
X 



CHAPTER VII 

RETIRES FROM ACTIVE PASTORAL WORK 

The activities of life had been strenuous with him, 
and a partial retirement from its more pressing duties 
brought a restful sense of relief and refreshment. He 
now had a delightful home in one of the most beautiful 
villages in that section of Ohio. To the east flowed the 
beautiful and placid Stillwater River, with its valley of 
almost unequaled fertility, where many fine, well-improv- 
ed farms lay in the quiet repose of that poetic region. 
Along the road overlooking the valley stretched a long 
row of picturesque hills, down which flowed many a little 
rippling stream of cool, clear water from the numerous 
springs which gurgled out from some recess along the 
rugged hillsides. 

The population was made up chiefly of well-to-do 
farmers, composed principally of members of the Friends, 
the Christian, and the Methodist churches, with a goodly 
number of those known as Dunkards and River Brethren. 
There were a number of Christian churches in the sur- 
rounding villages and neighborhoods. Also several 
Friends' churches, and Dunkard churches. As before 
stated Rev. Rush served the Christian Church in West 
Milton as pastor for sometime after he settled there. He 
also preached at Ludlow Falls, four miles north, where 
those picturesque little falls go plunging over a rocky 
precipice of about twenty or twenty-five feet, and where a 
beautiful grove of native cedars line the margin of the 
small creek. 



56 LIFE AND LETTERS 

During those years he preached a great many funer- 
als near and far. His ability to minister to sorrowing 
hearts, his willingness to bring the Gospel message and 
the comforts of the Christian religion to people under 
such circumstances, his love for and interest in children, 
his deep sympathy with those in affliction and grief, gave 
Aim a power with the people and created a demand for 
his services which called him on many a mission of love 
and comfort. Many times was he called to homes in 
former parishes to preach the funeral of some dear babe, 
some bright and promising youth, some faithful Christian 
wife or mother, some beloved brother, or some aged and 
revered father. 

He wrote many letters of sympathy and helpfulness 
during these last years. Many of these letters reveal a 
kindly sympathy, a genuine love, a tender feeling for those 
in bereavement, and a high appreciation of life's best 
qualities in child or man. 

We give here one of such characteristic letters: — 

West Milton, O., October 18, 1895. 
W. J. Davisson, Farmland, Ind. 

My Dear Brother : — I am glad that you and Sister Davisson 
had a pleasant visit to your son's. No doubt both you and they 
greatly enjoyed it. Children are always delighted with visits from 
their parents, as all of us can remember in the days gone by not 
to return again. 

Your children will always think upon these visits you make 
to them with fond and ever sacred recollections. Such experi- 
ences, — such delightful associations, — though gone like a brief 
day of sunshine, are ever green and flowery spots in children's 
memories. May the Lord ever bless your children at Elkhart, 
and may they and their parents live to enjoy each other's com- 
pany from time to time for many years to come ! Finally, may 
you all be blessed with a happy re-union in the good land that 
knows no good-byes, and no parting again forever. 

T much regret to hear of the death of my dear young friend, 



HOME LIFE 57 

Mr. Herby P. Davis. I hardly know when I have met a boy, or 
a young man, that I thought to be possessed of a more pure, kind, 
and loving spirit. His taking away was doubtless a sad experi- 
ence for his parents, and will leave a very conscious vacancy in 
the home. But they will not sorrow as those without hope. 
Herby was a good, innocent, loving boy. He seemed to me like 
one lent not for a very long time to his parents and then to be 
called to that land of beautiful sunshine, the light of which 
seemed in some sweet, mysterious way, to envelop him as he 
walked, step by step through his brief journey on earth to his 
angel-home in the skies. 

It was very kind in Brother and Sister Fowler to arrange 
for my brief, but pleasant meeting with Herby, when I was at 
your late conference. I did not want to leave the place without 
visiting Brother and Sister Fowler, and seeing my dear young 
friend again where I first formed my acquaintance with him, and 
so much enjoyed his company. I could not be with him long, 
for the evening service would soon begin. But before I left he 
had gone into the parlor, at his home, and there played a very 
beautiful tune. So the last act on earth of that dear boy was 
to charm my ear with those beautiful strains born of some divine 
power in his own soul, and now employed in melodies of praise to 
Jesus who redeemed him, and has now crowned him forever. 
Well, we must all say, "Good-bye, dear Herby," but this sad fare- 
well will be forgotten forever in the "Good-morning" greetings 
that will ere long be spoken with immortal lips, when parents 
and dear friends shall meet the loved son, the precious redeemed 
youth, where sickness and death will be done with forever. 

If you have opportunity, convey my sympathy to the bereft 
parents, and give my regards also to my beloved Brother and 
Sister Fowler. 

With kindest regards to Sister Davisson, I am, as ever, 

Your brother in Christ, 

H. Y. Rush. 

P. S. — Have been so busy with funeral and other ministerial 
duties that I have not written to your son, but mean to do so 
soon. 



58 LIFE AND LETTERS 

Another letter written to an old parishioner is so 
characteristic of his kind, sympathetic nature that we 
give it room here : — 

West Milton, O., March 10, 1898. 
Dear Brother and Sister Loudenback, St. Paris, Ohio. 

We often think and talk of you both, and of the pleasant 
visits we have had at your home, and at the home of the dear 
good parents, on the highway between Addison and St. Paris. 
But since then how many years have sped away ! And with the 
passing years marked and mysterious changes have been wrought. 
Perhaps not so mysterious after all. It is simply the course of 
a wise and good Providence by which heaven has received its 
accessions of the good and pure for the last six thousand years. 
It is thus that the generations come and go. The young and the 
old fulfill their little round of duty, and go back to God who 
created, commissioned, and sent them. Well may we say, 
"Blessed be His holy name." Every providence of His inspires 
to increased diligence as we turn away from fresh graves, and 
warm tears, to the divinely appointed and daily duties of life. 
When we have reached the age that we and you, dear brother and 
sister, have attained, the shadow of many graves — the graves of 
our dear departed — lies upon our path. But this only inspires 
us to greater diligence, giving us a deeper interest in, and a 
broader charity for, the suffering and the sorrowing who are all 
about us. By this fidelity to our earthly trust we are, in a 
measure, made worthy to join the bright assembly of the just 
where the saved and sainted of our homes now await us with 
hands outstretched and joyous welcome. Oh, when we arrive at 
that home of glory, we shall, I think, look back upon the tribula- 
tions of this world as instruments of grace, and of supreme per- 
sonal good. Surely, our loving, heavenly Parent, who sent His 
Son to save us, can have only purposes of good in all the sorrow 
and suffering incident to the lot of His believing children. While 
but for a time only our dearest earthly joys are removed hence, 
God, in the fullness of His love, will abide with us, and in us 
forever. Let us ever, therefore, praise Him who is our abiding 
stay, our refuge, the Rock of our trust; — whose infinite goodness 
we can never doubt, though clouds and darkness at times seem 
round about him. In a little while the mists will clear away and 



HOME LIFE 59 

all the glory of His will and ways will shine upon our higher, 
clearer, and more perfect understanding. Till that glad day 
by faith we will follow our departed ones in the upward, shining 
way over which they have passed to mansions above. Though 
the earthly ties that bound them to us are broken, they can never 
be separated from God. They were His while here with us, and 
they are His forever. It was His goodness that gave them to us 
and allowed us the rich blessing of their affection, and of mem- 
ories that now link us to the company of the redeemed. May 
all the blessing of their love to us, and ours for them be graven 
on our inmost souls, not to be erased by our grief at their going 
away, but rather deepened and consecrated by the tears we have 
shed. May that home of our loved ones rise before our faith in 
new brightness. May we be more earnest from day to day in 
the great work of life — of home and the church — till God shall 
call us to yonder higher sphere, and reunite the homes that are 
broken in this world only for a short time in the decree of death. 

But I did not think of writing you almost a sermon as the 
first thing on taking my pen. But my mind and heart seem to 
run out in that special direction. May be I was under the influ- 
ence of the. sorrowful yet beautiful funeral occasion of yesterday. 
Yes, even a funeral occasion may be beautiful, beautiful in trib- 
utes of sympathy, of flowers, and impressive tokens of immortal- 
ity, and prospective heavenly reunion, when a young life, pure 
and innocent, goes out to live and shine forever with Jesus. Such 
was the life of the pure, good, innocent boy whose funeral service 
I attended yesterday. 

How rapidly time is pushing us forward toward the journey's 
end! But we are glad that the past is so full of precious mem- 
ories, and that the future is rich in radiant prospects. Better 
days await us. If we do not realize them here, there is un- 
speakable good for us in the life to come. That other and bet- 
ter life may come soon. It cannot be very long delayed. May 
w r e be faithful till the change shall come. 

Your brother in Christ, 

H. Y. Rush. 

He not only wrote many long letters of comfort and 
spiritual helpfulness, but numerous brief messages of 
kindly and encouraging wordfc were sent those who were 



60 LIFE AND LETTERS 

bearing burdens, or doing noble deeds, or giving out use- 
ful and helpful things with tongue or pen. Such are the 
following postal card messages : — 

April 12, 1902. 
Dear Bro. Crampton : — The last Herald is proof that you 
have attended prayer-meeting, and know how to picture the pro- 
ceedings. 

Thanks for that excellent article. It will do good, and will 
tend to get this sacred cart out of the deep-cut rut. A fine edi- 
torial number in all that class of contents. 

Many other good articles. Very truly, 

Rush. 

To Rev. H. Crampton, while serving as assistant to 
J. J. Summerbell, editor of Herald of Gospel Liberty: 

No date. 
Dear Brother : — It is very kind in you to put your shoulder 
under Bro. Summerbeirs dual burden. You thus lighten its 
weight, and give a measure of comfort to a sorrowing heart. 
Heaven sustain our Brother, and justly reward you. You have 
used the "quill" well, and said to us many timely and helpful 
things. You are to be congratulated. 

Your brother in Christ, H. Y. Rush. 

To Rev. P. H. Fleming, Burlington, N. C. : 

West Milton, O., March 24, 1904. 

Dear Bro. Fleming : — I have read your "Bible Study" on 
Numbers with much interest. It is a large subject, but your 
ability to sift, simmer, condense, is very successfully set forth in 
this article. The preacher of limited time and of limited Biblical 
literature gets the gist of the subject from your happy and skill- 
ful condensation. Go on with the good work. Such a serial can 

hardly be too long-drawn May heaven bless you in your 

service for the Master, in pulpit and with the pen. Am ever 
glad to hear of Zion's prosperity in my native state. Yes, any- 
where in the "field," which Jesus says, "is the world." 

Your Brother sincerely, H. Y. Rush. 






HOME LIFE 61 

Another letter to a ministerial friend is written in 
such a genial and appreciative manner that I here sub- 
mit it : — 

LETTER TO REV. H. E. BUTLER 

West Milton, O., February 12, 1902. 

Dear Bro. Butler: — Your very welcome and good letter of 
the seventh inst. came duly to hand. Every line and word of 
it was read with interest by Mrs. Rush and myself. It revived 
precious memories of the past, and awoke reminiscences that are 
now brightened by gleams from the "glory land," and glimpses of 
loved ones that now walk in white robes. Oh, what changes since 
the days and nights of those happy meetings ten years ago ! To 
none of us is earth just what it was at that time; but to many 
of us "heaven" means infinitely more than it could possibly sig- 
nify before its shining throng was so recruited from our homes, 
our firesides, the pulpit, and the pew. Moreover, how much 
nearer are you, and I, and our loved ones to that land that lies 
ever in a summer beauty, and whose citizens live ever in a Pres- 
ence so gloriously bright as to make needless any "candle," or 
"sun" ! 

Yes, those were blessed days — and nights — when you came 
back into our home from the Lord's house, bounding through the 
door, shouting victory and praise, and trying to extort amens 
from all the family from cellar to garret, and then compelling the 
organ to swell the notes of victory, till our home echoed with 
glad notes almost as emphatic as the "voice of many waters". 
Everything in the home seemed to be spiritualized, — unless it was 
that unfailing cruse of candy. 

Well those glad echoes still hang about the ceiling, and 
every now and then one drops down into our hearts. We are 
glad to hear of the Lord's blessing upon your work this winter. 
Fifty-three souls for Christ this winter! Blessed be His name! 
Mrs. Rush also says, "Amen" ! Fifty-three more crowns, I 
trust, for heads of men and women that "follow the Lamb whither- 
soever he leads". I shall pray for them, that they may be faith- 
ful to the end and receive the crown of life. 

I hope your ministry may run through many years, and that 
at last you may pass to that rest where you shall meet many 
dear ones whom you were instrumental in bringing to Jesus. 



62 LIFE AND LETTERS 

What a grand co-worker you have had in Bro. Bennett! We 
think he is a young man of piety, and perfect purity of life. 
These, with other qualities, make him a power. I have but lit- 
tle faith in preachers or laymen who have not come near enough 
the cleansing Fountain to get the filth out of their minds, and the 
smut from their lips. Mrs. Rush and I should like to have seen 
that race you had after the young man ("M. E.") that shouted 
and ran and leaped. No doubt it had some likeness to the 
Olympian races, while it was inspired by motives and emotions 
with a life more lasting that that of the laurel. Well, yes, I too 
like emotions a little more "pacific", but give me this a thousand 
times before the bedlum of foot-ball, and the loud rowdyism of 
our popular up-to-date games. God's service has the highest 
pleasures, so that we need borrow no delights from the devil. 

May you have a good meeting at Vienna Cross Roads. Yes, 
that must be a sacred place to you. There you will almost feel 
the presence of Julia's spirit, — of that great and pure soul whose 
sympathy for you and your work was large, unselfish. Christlike, 
sublime. Those memories will be an inspiration, and will help 
you, through the Lord, to be at your best in pressing the claims 
of the Gospel upon sinners, and in turning their eyes to "beck- 
oning hands" that would lure them heavenward, and enlarge their 
hope of happy re-unions in heaven. 

Well, my dear brother, Mrs. Rush is desirous that I inquire 
of you how your dear little Julia Ruth is getting along. She 
feels a great interest in the little one, and you must tell us about 
her. What a noble Christian mother the little daughter had! 
May the good Shepherd guard her, carry her in His bosom, direct 
and keep in all the future of her life, and grant unto her the joy 
of seeing at last that mother's face, now more loving than ever, 
and all-glorious in the light of her celestial home. 

Mrs. Rush sends kindest regards. 

Your brother in Christ, H. Y. Rush. 

Still another happy, genial message, written in 
rythmic form, is given as revealing the kindly, helpful 
spirit of the man : — 

Mrs. Rapp had sent two little socks, a plan to raise money 
toward their new church at Troy. 



HOME LIFE 63 

West Milton, Ohio. 
Mrs. C. E. Rapp, Troy, Ohio. 
Dear Sister: — 

Two tiny socks you sent by mail, 

Were duly here received, 
And that your good work may not fail 
And many hearts be grieved — 

We sat down quick to count our feet, 

And find that each has two, 
And two times two are four complete, 

If 'rithmetic is true. 

Two number sevens make fourteen, 

Two number fives are ten. 
By this reck'ning it is seen 

That we to you must send 

In cents, all told, just twenty-four — 

It won't count otherwise ; 
But for good measure one cent more 

Will make it twenty-five. 

Now, Sister Rapp, may other friends 

Be blessed with bigger feet, 
Requiring shoes of number ten, — 

Then, when at Mack's you meet 

And count the totals of your toil, 
Your hearts shall cheer with large success. 

Your loving labor none can foil, — 
Your work is such as God can bless. 

With best wishes for a pleasant meeting of the society at 
Sister D. M. McCullough's, and for large success in the society's 
work, w T e remain, Yours truly, 

Mr. and Mrs. H. Y. Rush. 

P. S. — Mrs. Rush thinks the number has reference to the socks 
and not to the shoes. 

If she is right and I am wrong, 

And you mean socks instead of shoes, 
Just fifty cents I'll send along, 
Then you can have it as you choose. H. Y. R. 



64 LIFE AND LETTERS 

HABITS OF READING AND STUDY 

He was in the habit of rising at four o'clock, and 
would spend from one to two hours reading or writing. 
He wrote many articles for religious papers, as well as 
obituary and memorial sketches for local papers. He 
had a library of some two or three thousand volumes, and 
was a careful and thoughtful reader. He donated over 
one hundred volumes to one Sunday-school and gave away 
many more. He did not yield well-grounded convictions 
and conservative views of religious questions to accept 
those of the newer school of theological writers and think- 
ers except so far as they accorded with the generally ac- 
cepted views of orthodox teachers. He would rather hold 
to that which was regarded as safe, before accepting that 
which he thought failed to furnish any more solid founda 
tion for standing upon. He lived in a transition period; 
or rather perhaps stood at the dawn of a new era in relig- 
ious thinking. His religious writings are valuable chiefly 
for their practical helpfulness; their deep and sincere 
piety; their inspiring effect upon the life; their purity 
of thought and diction ; their beauty and simplicity ; their 
clear, picturesque, and graceful style. His analysis of 
Scripture lessons; his interpretation of their spiritual 
meaning; his exposition of their biblical significance; and 
his appropriate and beautiful illustrations were never 
dull, or prosaic, but always edifying, pleasing, and in- 
structive to his hearers. He greatly endeared himself to 
many intelligent and appreciative listeners during his 
long and useful ministry. He never prided himself in 
titles or mere outward honors to recommend him or en- 
dear him to others, but in sincerity, integrity, brotherly 
friendship and fellowship as worth far more than titles. 
Yet he was fully qualified in scholarship, ministerial dig- 
nity and decorum to deserve and modestly wear a title 




Mrs. Mary J. Rush 



HOME LIFE 65 

without pride or vanity. This was recognized by Union 
Christian College which conferred upon him the degree 
of Doctor of Divinity. 

CLOSING YEARS 

His devotion to his companion during the years of 
her enfeebled health was of a rare and beautiful kind. 
They together visited many medicinal springs and health 
resorts. His letters describing these places are interest- 
ing and often instructive. 

But as age crept slowly upon him he was the one who 
began to have feeble health. The exposure of army life, 
close application to ministerial labor, together with all 
the busy pursuits of life had told heavily upon his phys- 
ical strength. He still continued to supply in pulpit work, 
and to preach funerals frequently. His last public effort 
was in the Y> r est Milton Christian Church just a short time 
before his death. He spoke then to the delight and satis- 
faction of his hearers. He was almost too much ex- 
hausted to return to his home, and his companion was 
shocked to see him as he steadied himself at the fence 
before entering the front gate. It was his last effort to 
preach the Gospel he had loved so long to proclaim. He 
speedily sank under the weakening effect of la grippe, and 
a few days later he passed quietly away, — April 16, 1905, 
in the seventieth year of his age. His last words were 
faintly spoken as he looked up into the face of his dear 
companion and said, "Alone! Alone." The winter pre- 
vious he had said to her, "Mary, how lonely the one who 
is left will be when one of us is taken." His last words 
may be interpreted in the light of this remark. Later on 
as the end drew near he tried very hard to say something 
to the family but could not be understood. Finally he 
raised his right hand and pointing upward he waved his 



66 LIFE AND LETTERS 

hand while his eves lighted up as though some beautiful 
vision had been given him, and then sank quietly to rest. 

His remains were buried in the beautiful Riverside 
Cemetery at Troy, Ohio. 

He had purchased a lot there some time before, and 
was heard to remark that he "had been around in many 
burial places, but had never found one wiiich suited him 
as well as that one." With a gravelly soil, and a gently 
sloping fall toward the Miami River which it overlooked, 
it is indeed an ideal burying ground. Here rests also 
the remains of several other Christian ministers: Rev. 
A. L. McKinney, Rev. P. McCullough, Rev. J. P. Watson, 
D. D., Rev. Peter Banta. 

He came home one day and told Mrs. Rush he had 
bought what he thought to be one of the most desirable 
lots in the cemetery, and afterward he took quite an inter- 
est in having corner stones placed upon it. 

Here rests the remains of this man of God, preacher, 
soldier, editor. 




Rev. H. V. Rush, 13. 1>. 

< Age About Thirty) 






REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES IN 
MEMORY OF DR. RUSH 



REMINISCENCES BY AN OLD FRIEND 

My recollections of Rev. H. Y. Rush are of the most pleasing 
nature. 

In the early part of the year 1857 he came into the vicinity 
of what is known as Lower Honey Creek. The church record 
shows that in September, 1857, he was employed to preach twice 
a month for one year, his salary one hundred and fifty dollars. 

December 3, 1859, he was employed to preach on the first 
and third Sabbath of each month for one year. August 4, 1860, 
he was employed to preach for one year for one hundred dollars 
and a donation of twenty-five dollars, At the close of that year 
there were 147 members in good standing. 

Honey Creek Christian Church was organized January 20, 
1839, under the guidance of Rev. Joseph Kirby. 

The church record of Lost Creek Christian Church shows that 
he was employed in September, 1860, to preach at that place. 
The record reads as follows : — "Fourth Sabbath and Saturday 
preceding being the first meeting in the conference year, Elder 
H. Y. Rush in attendance, this meeting being the commencement 
of his labors with us as pastor." His relations as pastor to this 
church continued to the close of the conference year of 1866. 

The Ohio Roster of Soldiers Vol. 8, page 20, has the following : 
— 110th Regiment O. V. L, Company E., H. Y. Rush, First Lieut., 
age 26, date of entering service, Aug. 15, 1862. Period of service 
three years. Appointed Aug. 16, 1862. Resigned Oct. 6, 1863, on 
account of physical disability. 

July 4, 1866, the following resolution was adopted : — "Resolv- 
ed that whereas the church at this place has had the labors of 
Elder H. Y. Rush for the last six years, as pastor, that we with 
regret comply with his request to dissolve the relation he has 
sustained to us, yet in so doing, with pleasure state that our con- 
nection with him has been of the most pleasing nature. We 
therefore part with him with undiminished confidence in him as a 



68 LIFE AND LETTERS 

Christian and a minister and as such commend him to the Chris- 
tian world." 

The record shows the following: — 

RESIGNATION OF H. Y. BUSH, PASTOR 

July 21, 18G6 

Dear Brothers : — Other religious labors that I have consented 
to take upon myself in addition to the care of four churches, has 
so increased my work, that it becomes necessary for me to resign 
the pastorship of this church. In doing so I can but call to re- 
membrance the pleasantness of our past relationship and many 
happy seasons we have enjoyed in worshiping together in Christ 
Jesus. Truly the Lord has not been unmindful of our needs, nor 
has He withheld His favors while our relationship has existed. 
I trust that sinners have also been converted, and saints greatly 
revived and strengthened in their profession of Christ. May the 
same good Providence be with you and still bless you in all spirit- 
ual blessings in Christ Jesus. 

"Since my first connection with the church here solemn changes 
have taken place. I have followed with you several of your 
brethren, sisters, children and grandchildren to the grave. We 
have stood together by the tomb and seen that the life of infancy, 
youth and old age are alike fickle and uncertain. Brethren, we 
too, shall all soon lie down to our last sleep. May it be that 
sleep whose slumber and whose waking are in Jesus Christ. 

"And now thanking you for all your past and ever-to-be-re- 
membered kindness, and praying that God may send a faithful 
Shepherd to our flock, I respectfully resign my office as pastor, 
to take effect at the close of the present conference year. 

"And the peace of God which passetli all understanding shall 
keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. 

H. Y. Rush, 
Pastor Lost Creek Christian Church." 

At this time there were 110 members of the church, in good 
standing, some of whom were as follows : — George McCullough, 
Thomas Long, George Blaker, Richard Mitchell, Isaac H. Stins- 
man, Jacob Briggs, Henry Hartmen, Daniel Ralston, D. M. Mc- 
Cullough, B. V. Rossiter, Daniel Pence, Clifford Stratton, John 
Moore, Samuel Wilson, Bennett South, Rousseau Wilgus, Frank 
Wilgus, Wm. Pence, S. D. Stratton, George South, John Wilson, 
Paul Pence, Rev. Peter McCullough, Wm. W T alker, Thomas Wilgus, 
Michael Wilgus, Henry Munger, Esther E. Jenkins, present church 
clerk. The record shows he was paid a salary of $150 per year. 

The resignation was a serious blow to his old friend, Mr. 
George McCullough, of Christiansburg, Ohio. Mr. McCullough 
had been his steadfast friend in sunshine and shadow, in winter's 
cold and summer's heat, in adversity, in poverty and as a soldier 
for the flag they both dearly loved. Their fellowship and love 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 69 

for each other was like that of Jonathan and David, a thing of 
beauty. The kind of men who make the world better as the 
tide of years rises on the eternal shore. 

In the Lost Creek Church record I find that the first name of 
the church was Christian Church Indian Creek, also the following 
statement : — "That this church as near as we can ascertain, was 
constituted by Elder Samuel Kyle and William Dye on the fourth 
Saturday and Sunday in May, 1821. 

Wm. H. Green, Church Clerk." 

The above record was made December 30, 1830. 

Cove Spring Church was organized about 1815. The first 
church was built a little southwest of the present edifice and was 
known as the New Light Church. It was built near a spring 
which gushed forth from an alcove or ledge of rocks, it was first 
Cold Spring, the first syllable being dropped from Alcove, hence — 
Cove Spring. The old church was mysteriously burned one night, 
the origin of the fire never became public. 

The church is located almost in the center of Elizabeth Town- 
ship, Miami County and was built in the fifties. The church 
record I was unable to obtain. It was dedicated by the Rev. 
I. N. Walters. About the same time that Mr. Rush preached at 
Lost Creek and Honey Creek he was employed at Cove Spring, 
where he had a host of friends. The man who could follow such 
men as Kyle, Walters, Banta and others and make a record had 
to have more than ordinary ability. Rev. Rush was modest and 
unassuming and of high character. The first time I heard him 
preach was when I was a mere boy of thirteen. The impression 
he made upon my young mind has come down with me through 
all the years, (51). He insisted that the cultivation of the powers 
of observation in the daily life of our youth were being sadly neg- 
lected, and that this lack of encouragement and cultivation would 
handicap them in the struggles of life. He dwelt upon what con- 
stituted true character. That quality and quantity are the spe- 
cific tests which determine value and that there can be no am- 
biguity in discovering the difference between Christian character 
and a vicious life. Then he dwelt upon the importance of a 
knowledge of human character. He said that some day the study 
of physiognomy would rank as an exact science. That the eyes 
lips, ears and other features were an index of individual charac- 
ter. His text was "Consider the Lilies." He builded wiser than 
he knew. He was a striking example of the fact that beautiful 
characters of men and women carry the facial index. There 
was an atmosphere of purity about his life, like that of pure 
womanhood which adds luster to environment. Modest as a girl, 
brave as a Kosciosco on the battlefields of the Republic. No 
words of mine can adequately paint the character of this mild- 
mannered, manly man, whose life was as noiseless as the shadow, 
as silent as the placid lake. No clatter of an empty profession, 
no false pretenses of friendship, no hypocritical cant. His life- 



70 LIFE AND LETTERS 

work is interwoven into the warp and woof of the communities 
of Lost Creek, Cove Spring and Honey Creek, the lexicon of which 
lies in eternity. So his work leaves the fiber of it interwoven 
forever in the labor of life's moral vineyard — an inspiration, a 
benediction. His gentle influence is with the ages. We shall 
think of him in all the billowed years for what he wrought for 
others. 

His life was a battle against the wrongs of society and his 
country, always reasonable, always adequate. The suggestions 
of his clear mind were heightened by his zeal and love of right. 
Modern degeneracy had no claim on him. With broadax he laid 
the foundation for the destruction of the saloon and the education 
of the people on the use of alcoholics. On the streets of Chris- 
tiansburg he expressed those sentiments that have molded the 
social conditions into an intelligent conception of the wants of 
humanity. His eloquence at times was peculiar and of a spon- 
taneous character, transporting a refined sensibility affecting 
human conduct, based upon instruction, wisdom, seldom observed 
in rural pulpits or platforms. His patriotism was unbounded. 
His life was fired with the high and holy ambition of saving his 
country to us and generations unborn. The firing on Ft. Sumter 
set on fire his love of human liberty. The frown of war was 
already upon the visages of men. Cadmus bad thrown the stone, 
and the signal of combat sprung from the dragon's teeth. 

He taught two terms of school at Christiansburg, Ohio, in 
the year 1861. One commencing April 8th and ending May 21st 
The other commencing next day, May 22d and ending July 5, 1861. 
In the first school there were males, thirty-four; females twenty- 
six ; total, sixty. In the second school, males, thirty-seven : 
females, twenty-eight; total, sixty-five. The average number of 
children then in each family was eight, now it is two. Think, 
gentle reader, whither are we drifting? 

On the inside of the back of the old school register, now 
in the possession of Mr. D. M. McCullough, one of his pupils, and 
to whom we are all indebted for its preservation, I find a gem of 
purest ray serene, seemingly "Born to blush unseen" and shed its 
light amid the dust and vista of the silent years. I resurrect it 
here, that it may have a place in the archives of the lovers of 
human freedom. I chisel it not on marble, nor emblazon it on 
perishing bronze, but hope to write it upon the tablets of the 
hearts of those into whose hands it may fall in some succeeding 
years. Had Webster said it at Bunker Hill, or Lincoln at Gettys- 
burg, it would take its place upon the scroll of the immortals, 
revealing rare statesmanship and prophetic vision, expressing 
gigantic sentiments and an uncommon grasp of civic, religious and 
military situations in our national life. And -so his many splen- 
did thoughts shall "Glide above our memories, like shadows over 
streams." 

"And even now we have more to fear that our troubles will be 
but temporarily allayed, instead of their being fully eradicated 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 71 

and their causes utterly purged from the nation. It is better to 
have a severe and long attack of a malady which when thoroughly 
cured leaves the system invulnerable to disease than to be per- 
petually afflicted with shocks and paroxysms that keep us in con- 
tinual fear and suspense. Where life becomes nothing but a 
perpetual aftermath of disease and convalescence, existence itself 
becomes a burden and death a welcome relief. The thing most 
to be feared now is, not how long the war will continue or how it 
will end, but will the nation do right, leaving the consequences 
with God. Let us do right, respecting our troubles and institu- 
tions and our wounds will soon be healed and our nation possess 
a soundness that will utterly preclude the origin of disease with- 
in and the approach of disaster without. 

"When will peace be made? When wrong is righted ; when 
the cause of war is removed and the laws enforced — not com- 
promised, then and not until then can peace be made, without 
gross indignity to every rule of right and justice. But will its 
close witness the removal of every quicksand from our national 
basis, that our free institution may hereafter be unsullied, un- 
threatened, permanent as the foundations of the earth. Amen." 

On the inside of the back of a New Testament sent to D. M. 
McCullough from the Army of the Potomac, I find another beau- 
tiful letter so characteristic of the life of Mr. Rush, that I deem it 
worth publishing. It is as follows : — 

"September 22, 1863. 
From the Potomac Army. 
"On the banks of the memorable Rapidan, where the roar of 
our artillery mingles with that of the enemy — a scene in the his- 
tory of our country's struggle, presaging, perhaps, a grand conflict 
of arms, for which we now strip and prepare ourselves to do bat- 
tle. But among the precious objects I cannot carry and cannot 
throw away, is this New Testament, these precious words of Light 
and Life. To you, then, my dear pupil, the son of my faithful 
brother and sister in Christ, to you I give and recommend this 
Book, praying you to make it the Guide of your life, the Lamp of 
your Path, your support in affliction and your Title in Christ to an 
Eternal Life. 

"Devote your life to Christianity and the good of your country. 
Be swayed by no prejudices, no party and selfish spirit. Always 
be prepared and willing to die, if Providence so order it. 
From your friend, 

1st Lt. H. Y. Rush, 
Co. E. 110 Reg. O. V. I. 
2nd Brig. 3rd Div. 

3 A. C. Potomac Army." 

About a mile southwest of Honey Creek Church lived Samuel 
W. Sterrett when Mr. Rush came into the neighborhood. Mr. 
Sterrett had been a bound boy, raised by "Uncle Ben" Gooden 
of Elizabeth Township, Miami County. He knew of the struggles 



72 LIFE AND LETTERS 

incident to poverty in the life of an ambitious boy. He could 
read character at a glance. He saw in Mr. Rush the making 
of a splendid man. Took an interest in him and assisted him 
in many ways, financially and otherwise. The latchstring was 
always out. Here the young minister spent many hours in con- 
sultation with the man of mature years, and excellent judgment. 
The writer received many lessons in wisdom's ways from Mr. 
Sterrett by which he has profited in after years. Sterrett was 
an intense Union man. This engendered a dislike for him by 
northern sympathizers. Rush took up the cudgel in favor of the 
Union and wielded it with telling effect against all comers, much 
to their discomfort. Why should not Sterrett be intense. On 
the bloody field of Chickamauga his son Jacob R., had offered up 
his life to save the flag. Knowing Mr. Rush's good sense and cour- 
age, Mr. Sterrett sent him to the southland to bring home the 
body of his fair-haired boy. This he did. 

Of Quaker origin Mr. Rush broke away from the traditions 
of his people and early imbibed the theories of Horace Mann at 
Antioch, from which place he came to this community. Some 
of the characteristics of his people clung to him through life, 
which only emphasizes that "you may break, you may shatter 
the vase if you will, but the scent of roses will cling round it 
still." To attempt an analysis of the characteristics of the sub- 
ject of this sketch would be beyond my powers of description. 
The tones of his voice were full of melody. There were times 
when the intellectual powers seemed too great for physical endur- 
ance, yet in a moment he rallied and the very essence of his sub- 
ject seemed to flash like the scintillations of genius. There was 
a most profound depth to his reasoning. An unanswerable phil- 
osophy. There were times when the form seemed to be sinking 
under its own weight, but in a moment as if nerved with sinews 
of steel he arose to the occasion and the truths he uttered seemed 
unchangeable, unanswerable, immortal. He had a way of getting 
at the very essence of his subject, in exactly the most appropriate 
manner. His sublime features irresistibly convinced his hearers 
of his belief in his abstract statements as he was of his own ex- 
istence. In many ways he seemed to stand in a class of his own. 
He had faith in God and confidence in humanity. He loved the 
people and in turn they loved him. Duty was his watchword. 
Always sincere, always in deadly earnest. He was sagacious 
and conservative. He had a keen insight of human frailties and 
follies, yet seldom dwelt upon them. His appeal was to the better 
side of humanity. His effort was to set on fire the divine spark 
in every soul. 

In discussing the theory that it is necessary for young per- 
sons to sow "wild oats" to become wise to the world, he said, 
I cannot see how reformed vice can be better than constant virtue. 
I am utterly astounded to hear men advocate such a fallacy. I 
could write a volume along similar lines, but perhaps this will 
suffice. His body died, yet his soul, his good work, his splendid 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 73 

principles shall be as leaven in the bread and go on down the tide 
of the centuries. 

That same benign countenance was strong in death, the lines 
of labor's cares had swept away as if an angel kissed them down 
while he had slept and given back the peace of boyhood days and 
seemed to say "None know life's secret but the immortal dead". 
So dwells our noble friend in best of lands. 

Respectfully, 

Van S. Deaton, M. D. 

Alcony, Ohio, July 10, 1911. 

Among those who contributed to the success of the church at 
Cove Spring were John Greer, Dan McNeal, John McNeal, Henry 
Carver, The Bousmans, I. N. Kyle, Bennett Harter, I. A. Beales, 
H. C. Shidaker, Nelson Gearhart. 

And among those of Honey Creek were : — M. R. Ayres, David 
Strock, Wm. Leffel, Benjamin Flinn, T. S. Wells, Wm. Scoby, 
Abraham Ullery, Wm. Ullery, Simeon Furrow, J. O. Kirby, Thomp- 
son P. Tullis, John Hart, George W. Cromer, Henry Brandenburg, 
Jos. Ullery, Edward Littlejohn, George Strock, James Black, 
George Mock, Emanuel Rudy, John Bradley, Roily M. Van Devere, 
Wm. Morrett. V. S. D. 

Note. — The foregoing beautiful and appreciative sketch was 
written by Hon. Mr. Deaton at the request of Mr. D. M. McCul- 
lough to whose kindly help I am greatly indebted. The charm 
of the sketch is found in the warm personal element and sym- 
pathy which everywhere pervades this friendly tribute. — The 
Authob. 



MY RECOLLECTIONS OF H. Y. RUSH 

Note. — The following Recollections were written by Col. F. M, 
Sterrett at the request of Mr. D. M. McCullough, of Troy, Ohio. — 
The Author. 

St. Cloud, Fla., June 14, 1911. 

It has been almost a month since you wrote me to send you 
for publication, some of my recollections of the Rev. H. Y. Rush. 
I have just completed my bank building, and the bungalow on the 
lake is approaching completion, so nearly that I take time to 
write a few lines at least, about one who held a high place in the 
hearts of my father's entire family, although none of them were 
members of the Christian Church. 

In the fifties, the Christian Community of the Northwest 
part of Pike Township, Clark County, Ohio, whose church house 
is now located in school district No. 5 in Pike Township, near 
Honey Creek ; worshiped in a log house, built in the woods, near 



74 LIFE AND LETTERS 

where the Beech Grove Methodist Church is now situated. I 
think Peter Banta was the only regular minister that preached 
to this community, although I recollect Mark Briney, N. Summer- 
bell, T. M. McWhinney, Peter McCullough and others preached 
there at irregular periods. It was a fertile region, and when 
the farms were cleared and roads made, they sought and built a 
more pretentious church house, of frame, yet standing, and in 
good repair, now called Honey Creek Chapel. Peter Banta con- 
tinued to preach to this people in the new house. He preached 
the first sermon I ever heard, in the old log church, and I have 
carried much of it in memory to the present moment. Brother 
Banta preached a literal hell in those days, and it made my 
young blood curdle to think of the awful torments depicted in 
his sermons. I recollect, the conversation as we walked home 
from these meetings, consisted largely of an interchange of opin- 
ion about the degree of heat which could be generated with fire 
and brimstone. It was asserted that it was nine times as hot as 
an ordinary fire, and at this, one of the young men in all sol- 
emnity said : "It will be no use to send me there, I surely could 
never stand it". 

Father Sterrett lived about three-fourths of a mile southwest 
of Honey Creek Chapel. His church membership and that of his 
family were at McKendrie M. E. Church, about two miles to the 
southwest of his farm. He lived and died a trustee of this 
church. There were ten children in the family and when young 
all attended Sabbath-school at Honey Creek Chapel and when 
grown, at McKendrie. Father owned and through help operated 
the saw and gristmill of the neighborhood, where the social, relig- 
ious, political and other topics of the day were largely discussed. 

It must have been in 1857 that Peter Banta brought 
H. Y. Rush to Honey Creek Chapel and introduced him as a 
young student from Antioch College, and a graduate of Mead- 
ville Theological Seminary. Rush was close to six feet in height 
and spare in build, with one of the most modest expressions that 
I have ever seen on the face of a living man. He was about 
twenty-two years of age at this time. His sermon on this occa- 
sion was pleasing to the congregation. 

During the following week, David Strock, Win. Leffell, and 
Micajah Ayers, all well-to-do intelligent farmers and members of 
the Honey Creek Chapel, met at father's gristmill, and being pres- 
ent at the office, I heard the conversation, which led up to the 
engagement of H. Y. Rush, to preach for that society, where he 
continued to preach until 1S60. 

Father said, (in the custom of the neighborhood) "Boys, are 
you aware you heard a great sermon on last Sunday?" Each 
of the "boys" although not so deeply impressed as father, agreed 
that Rush had preached a good sermon. Father urged them to 
secure Rush for regular sermons, and warned them, that if they 
failed to do so, they would miss the opportunity to secure the 
greatest preacher that had ever come into their midst. This 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 75 

conversation resulted in a promise upon the part of my father, to 
pay as much to Honey Creek each year as to McKendrie. 

Rush, in the pulpit, was a personification of reverend dignity. 
He looked at his audience with benign and kindly eyes. He was 
a typical religious teacher and sought his way to the understand- 
ing and heart by simple and direct methods. I have often thought 
that the greatest forcefulness of Rush consisted in this very sim- 
plicity of method. One seemed to reach his deeper channel, as 
the spring branch reaches the creek, through gravity, without 
effort, in the removal of that which had formerly obstructed the 
flow. He was erect in his pulpit bearing and always benignly 
serious. I never heard him, even in his later days, when 
he did not seem to approach his task as teacher with an almost 
blushing diffidence. He was the most modest, large intellectual- 
ity I have ever known. The only weakness I ever detected in 
him was that no man would ever speak ill of him. He never 
attempted the rhetorical and was singularly free from gesticulation ; 
and while he did not practice the purely oratorical effect, I have 
seen his face aglow with a light seemingly sent down from the 
heavenly choir, that fired his clear, ringing voice with a 
magnetic force that carried the soul along the absolutely eloquent 
path he was treading with an ecstasy which inspired, enthralled. 

Rush came to our house at will and stopped oftener with us 
than all the other neighbors combined, until he married Miss 
Kepper, one of the estimable young lady members of his con- 
gregation. 

I recollect that when Benjamin G., the youngest of our fam- 
ily died in December of 1860, the Methodist brethren expressed 
some little discontent, that our own preacher should not have 
preached the funeral sermon, instead of Rush, but when a sister 
died, twenty years later, father would only have Rush to say the 
words that committed her body to the grave. When father 
died in 1885, we boys sent for Rush to say the last words above 
the body of the man who had been his very close friend for a 
quarter of a century. Six years ago, I looked on the face of 
Rush, lying in his coffin in the Presbyterian church of Troy. It 
came to me then, and it rushes over me now ; what a good man 
he had been in the world and how much the world had lost in his 
taking away ; and my own personal loss in his departure. I saw 
Rush on the train near Bradford, in 1899, for the first time in 
many years, and thanked him for an article I had seen from his 
pen, in which he defended me and my motives in a controversy I 
had been through with the Omaha Bee. He said at that time, 
"My dear Brother Frank, I have carefully watched every step of 
your course and have prayed God every day to guard and guide 
you." He added some eloquent and affectionate words about the 
old Honey Creek days and the old brick house on Walnut Hill 
which he still regarded as home, and which he visited nearly every 
year as long as mother lived. To know that this good man kept 
his eye on me, and prayed for me. at times when I forgot my own 
prayers, made a better man of me. 



76 LIFE AND LETTERS 

I can see the round form of father yet, as it shakes, while 
relating some incident that illustrated the innate modesty of 
Rush. At one time, when father had driven Rush to Troy, he 
detected a serious break in one of Rush's boots, which he was 
maneuvering to hide. He succeeded in getting him to a shoe 
store and said, "One of us is nearly barefooted and the weather 
is cold, fix this man up,'' which was accordingly done, while Rush 
protestingly blushed. This was before Rush had accumulated a 
competence. 

Father was appointed in the fall of 1861, by Governor Tod, 
to go to our troops in West Virginia, where his son, Jacob R., was 
serving, in the 11th Ohio (afterwards killed at Chickamauga) to 
collect and bring home such funds as the soldiers desired to send 
to their families. He asked the Governor to appoint Rush to 
accompany him, which was done, and they traveled on the Ohio 
and Kenahivan together. The letters of each, published in the 
Springfield, Ohio, Republican at the time, are still preserved and 
those of Rush show a mind with a wide range of thought in other 
fields than the ministry, including treatment of matters military. 
These letters develop the first indications of the soldier spirit in 
this groat preacher. In another year he had entered as a lieuten- 
ant, the 110th Ohio Infantry, commanded by my friend, J. Warren 
Kiefer. for fourteen years a member of Congress and for one term 
speaker of that body: an author, statesman and soldier. The 
friendship between these two really big men, in different channels, 
was kept up until the death of Rush, which the General mourned 
with a deep and lasting sorrow. The company in which Rush 
was lieutenant, was largely made up of men from Troy and vicin- 
ity. All speak of his coolness and bravery in action and his 
strict performance of duty in camp and on the march. 

Rush was the greatest natural preacher that I have ever lis- 
tened to. Altogether. I think he was the cleanest man that I 
have ever intimately known. It is certain that he was the most 
modest man I ever knew, and yet he was a valorous man and 
maintained his convictions with unswerving fidelity. 

Such are a few thoughts and recollections of a good man 
whose acquaintance I made in the beginning of his career, at his 
first charge on Honey Creek. 

Regretting that I have not yet brought any of my books or 
papers from Troy, through which I might write more extensively 
and accurately, I am, as ever, Your friend, 

F. M. Sterrett. 



FROM AN OLD CLASSMATE AT MEADVILLE 

I cannot say, in this brief note, near all my heart would 
prompt me to say of Bro. Rush. He was one of "nature's noble- 
men." To "know him was to love him". 

My acquaintance with him began at the American Christian 
Convention, held in Marshall, Mich., in October, 1866. From 



i 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 77 

that time until his death, in 1905, we were associated as charter 
members of the Board of Trustees of the Christian Biblical Insti- 
tute. This brought me into close relationship with him and gave 
me clear views of his beautiful Christian life. 

When I learned of his death I wrote the Herald of Gospel 
Liberty as follows : "By the death of Rev. H. Y. Rush the Chris- 
tian Church has lost one of its best men — an able preacher, a 
successful pastor, an accomplished writer, a safe counsellor, and 
a courteous Christian gentleman." 

But while these words express briefly, but fairly, my estimate 
of the man as I knew him, following are some words I would 
now add. 

1st. He w T as thoroughly devoted to his mission as a minister 
of the Gospel. Believing it to be divine, believing in God the 
Father and in man the brother, he did with patient, persistent 
might what hand, head and heart found to do. 

2nd. As a preacher, he was not only forceful and instructive, 
but he inspired his hearers with the utmost confidence. Behind 
each sermon "there was the Christian man shining through and 
enforcing its principles by a living exainple". 

3d. As a writer, his style — if at times strong and pungent — 
was always graceful and finished — his thoughts being presented in 
language well chosen, chaste and simple. 

4th. In counsel, or wherever called to act, he was strong, 
ready, unassuming, capable and resolute. The church could trust 
him in any place. 

5th. He was in every sense a brother. All could get near to 
him, tell him their joys and griefs and wishes and woes. In a 
word, he was an embodiment of Christian love. 

Finally. It may be said of Dr. Rush, as was said of the late 
Dr. Rader, "Service nerved him. He could suffer but not shrink, 
renew his zeal but not surrender. When death struck the pen 
from his hand, he was ready for the crown he had won." 

D. E. Millard. 

April 17, 1911. 



A FRIENDLY ESTIMATE FROM A NONOGENARIAN 

My acquaintance with Rev. H. Y. Rush was not very intimate 
nor very extended, but what I did enjoy was of the pleasantest 
kind. He was a man whom to know was to love. He was 
always a sweet-spirited Christian. His countenance was an 
expression of welcome and an inspiration and invitation to con- 
fidence. This gave him an attractive influence over all whom 
he met ; and it was an attraction to what was best and truest in 
life. So his very living was a blessing to all with whom he lived 
and as long as he lived. The good that he did actively was in 
addition to what he was passively. 

As a minister, w r hether as pastor of a church or as co-worker 



78 LIFE AND LETTERS 

in conferences and conventions, his work and council were on the 
side of what tended to build up righteousness, truth and love. 
He was not demonstrative, not ambitious for leadership ; but 
those who were leading for the best things could always count on 
his presence with them, and his wise and active co-operation. 
And the soundness of his judgment and the earnestness of his 
purpose made him a strong helper. The foremost found him one 
among themselves. As a pastor, his sermons were not for ora- 
tory but for persuasion. Their thought was weighty, clear, and 
winningly presented. But he won converts and built up his 
churches more by the influence of his personality, sincere and 
friendly, than by the power of his sermons ; though each was 
always the helper of the other. This made him the successful 
pastor he was. 

But it was as editor of the Herald of Gospel Liberty that I 
knew him most. He was handicapped in this by the injudicious 
financial management of the Herald's affairs, but his own work 
was untainted by the effect. He was an able, clear, and forceful 
writer, and his aim was to build up the things that pertained to 
the Gospel of the Kingdom. He was no controversialist. He 
was for building up righteousness, rather than finding fault with, 
and saying hard things about, the righteous man who differed 
from him in opinion. He read widely, judged candidly and im- 
partially, treated all questions and all persons fairly, and wrote 
out of a heart and mind imbued with a love for the great Cause. 
He had no personal axe to grind nor hobby to ride. His position 
brought him into friendly touch with the people, and especially 
with the ministers, throughout our denomination. His spirit 
was broad and charitable to all ; and at the same time strong, 
and loyal, and promotive of the vital interests of the cause of 
Christ and of the truly Christian principles for which we properly 
stand. 

It is an honor to a denomination to have produced such a 
man ; it is an honor to a man to have served so faithfully the real 
interests of such a denomination. 

J. B. Weston. 

Note. — The above estimate is from Rev. J. B. Weston, D. D., 
LL. D., Chancellor of Christian Biblical Institute, Defiance, Ohio. 






A TRIBUTE OF LOVE FROM ONE OF HIS NATIVE 

STATE 

Rev. Henry Y. Rush, D. D., was born and reared to young 
manhood in Randolph County, N. C. He came of sturdy and 
heroic stock. His father and mother, his grandfathers and 
grandmothers were plain Christian men and women of the people. 
Lord Bacon says : "Manifest virtues procure reputation ; occult 
ones fortune". 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 79 

When a boy Henry offered no shining qualities at the first 
encounter; he did not, as Emerson said of Lincoln in youth, 
"offend by superiority". As a boy and a man he was without 
vices. The face of the North Carolina boy, as well as his manner, 
disarmed suspicion. 

Before he set his face toward what was then called "The 
West" he had inspired the confidence and confirmed the good 
will of everybody in Randolph County with whom he became well 
acquainted. He grew up with the West. Whether teacher or 
pastor, soldier or editor, his courage, his justice, his even temper, 
his fertile counsel, his close application to his studies, his abiding 
faith in God as Father, Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit as Com- 
forter, enabled him, with his noble Christian wife and daughter, 
to grow in grace, in knowledge, in favor with men, until he was 
justly regarded as one of the ablest, purest, and best men, among 
our people, who ever bore the standard of the Cross, who ever 
went out from North Carolina to build his home and altar in the 
great state of Ohio. 

D. A. Long. 

Graham, N. C. 

Note. — The above tribute is from the pen of Rev. Daniel 
Albright Long, D. D., LL. D., Ex-President of Antioch College, 
and President-elect of Union Christian College, Ind. — The 
Author. 



GENERAL J. WARREN KEIFER'S ESTIMATE OF H. Y. 
RUSH AS A SOLDIER 

Briefly summarized I remember Reverend Henry Y. Rush as a 
learned and devout minister of the Gospel in the Christian Church, 
who became a First Lieutenant in the 110th Ohio Volunteer Infan- 
try in the Civil War and who, as such officer, entered the service 
August 15, 1862, and was mustered into the United States Volun- 
teer Army for three years or during the war on October 3, 1862. 
He resigned on account of physical disability October 6, 1863, 
while serving in the Army of the Potomac under General Meade, 
near Culpepper Court House, Virginia. Besides numerous skir- 
mishes and affairs in West Virginia, he fought with his regiment 
and company in the considerable battles of Union Mills, Winches- 
ter Heights and Stephenson's Depot, Va., June 13, 14 and 15, 
1863, and he participated in the pursuit of Lee's Confederate army 
in the retreat from Gettysburg, Pa., July 6 to 13, 1863, and in the 
succeeding campaign, including the short but decisive battle of 
Wapping Heights, Va., July 23, 1863. He was also w T ith his regi- 
ment in New York City and Brooklyn, N. Y., (August 15 to 
September 15, 1863) engaged in suppressing riots and enforcing 
the draft. 

Though the duties in the army of Reverend Rush were with 



80 LIFE AND LETTERS 

his company and command and on the firing line in battle, he 
never forgot his high calling and Christian character. He 
unostentatiously conducted prayer-meetings, held religious serv- 
ices in his company and, at frequent times, acted as Chaplain of 
his regiment. He always commanded the respect of all the 
officers over him, also of all the officers and soldiers under or 
associated with him. He was a good disciplinarian, and yet 
always just and careful of his men. He never spared himself at 
their expense. 

It was his fortune to participate in a number of great bat- 
tles of the Civil War, and though his constitution was naturally 
not strong, he endured the hardships of camp life, severe drills, 
marches, bivouacs, campaigns, guard duties by night and day and 
the necessary exposure in all kinds of weather in all seasons of 
the year, often going for weeks in campaigns without protection 
or shelter by day or night, and obliged, at times, to sleep on froz- 
en or wet ground. Only when broken down with disease incident 
to his severe and trying service did he relinquish his field service, 
return to civil life and to his ministerial work both in the pulpit 
and as a writer and editor of a Gospel newspaper. 

He was an exceptional and critical scholar. His literary 
attainments were high ; and his learning was not that of a theo- 
logian alone. He was an investigator of science and of abstruse 
subjects. His learning was recondite. He was a thinker. He 
loved his fellow-men, and devoted his life to doing good, and with 
all, he hated, despised and indignantly spurned shams, pretenses, 
falsehood and deception. 

He was hostile to slavery. He early favored emancipation, 
and he rejoiced in Lincoln's Proclamation freeing the slave. He 
was a North Carolinian by birth, and had a deep sympathy for 
the non-slaveholding white people of his native state and of the 
South generally. He believed, as the sequel has proved, that they 
too would be emancipated from social and personal thraldom inci- 
dent to a residence among slaveholders. He also had prescient 
wisdom enough to foretell that with slavery abolished, the slave- 
holder population would also be emancipated from a condition 
that, all moral and religious questions aside, would bring it to 
enjoy greater happiness, safety, security and prosperity in the 
future. 

In the pursuit of Lee's army through Maryland just after his 
defeat at Gettysburg (July 1 to 3, 1863) some North Carolina 
Confederate soldiers fell into our hands, some of whom were 
personally known to Lieut. Rush. He evinced the greatest and 
tenderest interest in them. He told me that they were (as they 
informed him) as devoted to the Union and as much opposed to 
human slavery as he was himself, but, as citizens of North Caro- 
lina, they were obliged to enlist in the Confederate army, and being 
in that army, that they could only do their duty as soldiers and 
fight bravely. This serves as an example of the situation of 
many of the Confederate soldiers. Regardless of an honest 
hatred of slavery and a patriotic Union sentiment, many, through 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 81 

pride of race and soldierly duty, fought to dissolve the Union and 
establish a government which, by its organic act — its Constitution 
— proposed, for the first time in the world's history, to make slav- 
ery eternal in it. Reverend Rush rejoiced that he was, when the 
war came, a resident of a loyal state — one dedicated to freedom ; 
that he was permitted to participate in freeing the slave. He 
was my friend. I wish I could pay to his memory the tribute 
his exceptionally high character deserved. 

J. Warren Keifer. 
Springfield, Ohio, July 31, 1911. 



THE FRIENDLY TRIBUTE OF ANOTHER MEADVILLE 
- GRADUATE 

Dear Bro. Vaughan : — I gladly comply with your request to 
furnish for your book a personal estimate of our lamented brother, 
Dr. Henry Y. Rush. I esteem it a privilege to pay to his memory 
a tribute of affection. 

On my leaving the Meadville Theological School, in June, 1865, 
this dear brother, then editor of the Gospel Herald, in Dayton, 
Ohio, interested himself in my future welfare by seeking to find 
for me a field of labor. The church in West Dayton (then 
"Miami City") being pastorless, he arranged for me a candidating 
visit to that society, which, though disappointing to my fond hope 
for a prompt settlement, was nevertheless richly rewarded in the 
formation of an inspiring personal friendship which has continued 
until now it rises in memory as a beautiful picture vanishing in- 
violably into the past as a delightful dream. 

Looking back from the present hour, memory freshens, of inci- 
dents occurring through the succeeding years, which speak of an 
abiding friendship happily growing into a veritable intimacy. 

To have had such a sympathetic and confiding friend as was 
H. Y. Rush through the larger part of my ministerial career 
from its beginning, I cherish as a favor of Providence. 

Between the covers of a valuable book, the gift of this brother 
of precious memory, I find a postal card which I cannot refrain 
from inserting in this place as serving to indicate a mutual per- 
sonal regard in later years, and the characteristic spirit of this 
brotherly man. 

West Milton, O., 12-2-95. 
Dear Bro. Newhouse: — Thanks for your card of the 29th 
ult. Its words are those of true brotherly kindness and comfort 
— a gleam of bright sunshine in our little household circle. The 
Lord ever bless you and yours. I am convalescing, sitting up a 
few hours each day. What precious lessons — what delightful 
experiences — in these bodily afflictions! How frail we are! 
How strong when even weakest ! How, too, our ranks are be*4ig 



82 LIFE AND LETTERS 

thinned. Truly "we are all going". How swiftly sped the mes- 
senger to Bro. Garoutte! May we all be ready. Love to all. 
Your brother in Christ, H. Y. Rush. 

The impression of the character, and the remembrance of the 
pure and loving spirit of this unique writer and preacher are left 
in a multitude of hearts. He was a Christian man, not merely 
in the sense in which the many are known as Christians, but in 
the profounder sense in which the soul continuously and increas- 
ingly lives in Christ. His whole life was imbued with the spirit 
of Christ, so much so that his daily walk and conversation were 
an epistle of the grace of God to all who came within the range 
of his influence. He unconsciously wielded a wholesome and 
elevating power over men. There was a tenderness of feeling, 
a brightness, a kindliness of spirit, a quiet, free, unassuming de- 
meanor about him that interpreted the great soul within, and 
made those who knew him feel that here is a man who has a grasp 
on the powers of the world to come. He impressed me as one to 
whom a malign feeling was impossible. 

In the whole tenor of his life he openly and with convincing 
power expressed the reality of his Christian profession. Not so 
much by what he said, but much more by what he was in his 
everyday life, the same guileless, genial Christian man, he certi- 
fied to the fact that Christ indeed dwells in men as a present 
Savior of the world. Retiring and modest, even timid among 
his brethren, he was a man of unpretending piety — a godliness 
which was seen rather than proclaimed. It was not alone the 
richness of his mind, but in still larger measure those heart graces 
which are summarized in the mind of Christ that made him strong 
whether he spoke or was silent, whether in official place or in the 
quiet walks of life. 

The churches that were favored with his ministry could never 
complain that any opinions expressed by him, however unpalata- 
ble to any class of hearers, were ever tainted by acrid passions 
unbecoming a Christian minister to feel. They could bear their 
testimony that he had always been bold and independent, and at 
the same time been free from the wilfulness and malignity into 
which boldness and independence are apt to lead when stung by 
harsh criticism and open opposition. If he had a fault it grew 
out of his native modesty, diffidence and kindliness of spirit. It 
was the hidden, interior man of the heart, the invisible character 
behind all the rich possessions, intellectual, social and spiritual, of 
this Christian man, that gave him his real power and skill to 
control the wills, and move the hearts, and win the confidence and 
love of his fellow-beings. Both as a writer and speaker he was 
unique and fascinating. His productions were original in con- 
ception and clear in arrangement. His thoughts were always 
clothed in beautiful and eloquent language, and adorned with 
appropriate imagery ; and in his happiest moods in speaking, when 
the spell of his religious genius possessed him, his delivery was 
magnetic and impressive in a high degree. 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 83 

Excellent as were his powers of acquisition, of thought, and 
of speech, there was something still more excellent in the gen- 
ial, loving and cheerful spirit from which his powers derived their 
finest life, drew their richest aspirations, and received their 
noblest impulse. 

On the platform his personal presence was attractive. He 
had a pleasing countenance, and his eye and features were ex- 
pressive of the loving heart within. 

His manner was graceful, animated and free, always suiting 
the "action to the word". Though earnest, serious and impres- 
sive, there was never harshness or severity in his expression or 
tone. The sweetness of his voice, added to the clear intelligence 
of his utterances, and the transparent goodness of his spirit, won 
for him an attentive and responsive hearing on all occasions. 

But, using his own words : "How swiftly sped the messenger" 
to him ! He is gone. Not dead — such noble spirits never die. 
But he is gone ! This is the melancholy fact. Brother, we will 
not mourn for thee as lost : — 

"We only know that thou hast gone 

From God's own hand to God's own hand." 

S. S. N. 

Note. — The above beautiful tribute is by Rev. S. S. Newhouse. 
D. D., who now occupies the Chair of Homiletics and New Testa- 
ment Literature in the Christian Biblical Institute at Defiance. 
Ohio. — The Author. 



WARM WORDS OF PRAISE FROM A BROTHER IN THE 

MINISTRY 

It was my good fortune to succeed Dr. Rush as pastor of the 
Christian Church at West Milton, Ohio, and during nine years, 
in all, thereafter he was a resident minister in my parish. From 
our midst his great soul ascended to its sure reward and his sud- 
den departure seemed to us like the swift going down of the sun 
from the western sky. But his sun did not descend until the long, 
lingering day was approaching its glorious completion. What a 
full, radiant light it shed as it hung soft and resplendent above 
the horizon ! We were fondly hoping that the shining gifts of this 
strong man, gifts that had shown little, if any, diminution of their 
pristine power, would be employed yet many years to come in pro- 
claiming the gospel story that had ever been the joy of his life. 
But while we were hoping he quickly gathered about himself "the 
drapery of his couch" that he might "lie down to pleasant dreams" 
and the vacancy caused by his withdrawal was great indeed. 

Those years of personal intercourse not only afforded an ex- 
cellent opportunity to observe his strong, beneficent character and 



84 LIFE AND LETTERS 

to study the sources of his marvelous power as a preacher but 
they, also, brought me into such close, vital touch with his life 
that I shall ever feel myself a great debtor to this eminent min- 
ister of the Gospel. 

I am glad to affirm of this distinguished son of our church 
that he was a model of excellence both as a man and as a preacher. 
As a firm basis of his life with its splendid achievements we must 
reckon, as first in importance, his personal religious character. 
His devout soul believed implicitly in God and yielded itself in 
grateful submission to his will. One could not continue long 
under the pulpit ministrations of Dr. Rush without observing the 
most absolute intellectual docility toward our Heavenly Father. 
Toward men he was always considerate, and conciliatory but, 
withal, his bearing was lordly, dignified and free. But toward 
God — God speaking in his Word, he uniformly assumed a reverent, 
lowly attitude. God's Word was the arbiter to which all ques- 
tions should be referred for final decision. The liberty to inter- 
pret that Word he freely granted to all, but, in his thought, the 
liberty to interpret in no sense involved the liberty to reject it. 

This loyal submission of himself, mind and heart, to the teach- 
ings of the Bible led him to exert himself earnestly to know what 
that teaching is. In his study he sought all the light that con- 
secrated scholarship and investigation could throw upon the sacred 
page. He was a careful, devoted Bible student. He was, in fact, 
a skilful exegete of the Scriptures. His usual method of treating 
a text in the pulpit was topical but it was invariably based upon 
a thorough exposition of its teaching. In all his preaching he 
combined homiletic genius with applied exegesis in a remarkable 
degree. He was careful to inject no thought or doctrine into the 
text that did not properly belong there. He was ever conscious of 
profound responsibility as he stood in the pulpit handling the in- 
visible realities of the eternal world in the presence of a living 
congregation. He proclaimed these eternal verities of God's 
Word with great power, urging upon men everywhere the high 
privilege of accepting them by an invincible faith instead of sub- 
jecting them to the arbitration of human judgment. He was a 
strong, tenacious believer and preacher, holding firmly the truth as 
God gave him to know the truth, ever seeking the best forms and 
methods of its presentation. His obedience was not conformity, 
merely, in act. It was, rather, a voluntary conformity of his 
whole being to the spirit and life of Jesus Christ as set forth in 
the Scriptures. 

Dr. Rush was, also, master of a literary style that was noted 
for its elegance and purity of diction. How chaste and circum- 
spect his language, in the pulpit or out of it! His fine literary 
instinct enabled him to clothe his thought in terse, simple, lucid 
sentences, infinitely varied and often of surprising beauty. Order 
and arrangement are to be found in his productions, that render 
them, not only effective, but, also, gratifying to the sense of ideal 
perfection in form. And how easily and gracefully he glides 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 85 

from one mood of thought into another ! At times you are deeply 
touched by the tender pathos of his thought, then, anon, a cheer- 
ful sally of humor enlivens his message and impresses its meaning 
more forcibly. 

When deeply engaged in a theme he was presenting in the pul- 
pit, a theme that profoundly moved his soul, he poured forth his 
message with genuine oratoric power. His natural buoyancy of 
thought would then enable him to rise to great heights upon the 
wings of fancy and imagination, carrying his audience with him at 
will. The power with which he could sway a great audience, at 
such times, was marvelous. An audience quickly recognizes a 
master and Dr. Rush could wield such power because he was a 
genuine poet in sacred oratory, and was himself swayed by deep 
moral earnestness. Throughout his long career as a preacher 
he constantly employed his bewitching eloquence in winning thou- 
sands to our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he loved and whom he 
served. 

Not only was this superb preacher noted for his highly cul- 
tured and ornate literary style, but there was thought, as well, and 
it was thought fully commensurate with the beautiful garb in 
which it was clothed. One always finds originality and sugges- 
tiveness in his discourses. He was a thinker as well as a preach- 
er. And his thought was as strong and virile as his language 
was polished and esthetic. What an intelligence is displayed in 
the productions of this prolific writer and preacher ! He was 
usually an extemporary speaker, or practically such, but he was 
not an extemporary thinker. He thought for the pulpit, and his 
fertile mind laid tribute upon everything that would yield material 
for the sermon. And when uttered in the pulpit it was prepared 
thought taking form under the inspiration of the moment. And 
a noteworthy characteristic of his sermon is the cardinal fact 
that it not only deals with thoughts but it deals with thought. 
When a sermon holds before us a single, great thought, in the 
development of which the whole discourse moves on strongly, 
majestically, as to a goal to be reached — that is the mark of the 
essential thinker. Some sermons are like a string of beautiful 
pearls — only the string is not there. There is no vital relation 
of its several parts. Not so with the sermons of Dr. Rush. In 
his discourse you readily perceive the relation of one thing to 
another as they unfold before you, like a plant from a seed. It 
is eminently rational, logical. His divisions are made with care 
and often with great felicity. And in all the movement of the 
discourse there is a conclusion to be reached, and the conclusion 
is more than the process. A dominant thought is unfolded, step 
by step, and every subsidiary thought owes its value to its relation 
to the prevailing truth of the sermon. Herein was one of the 
secrets of Dr. Rush's great power in the pulpit. The element of 
cumulation enabled the discourse to gather momentum in its 
progress, and oftentimes, in a fitting climax the whole force of 
the sermon would be discharged with telling effect upon his 
auditors. 



86 LIFE AND LETTERS 

As a resident minister in the pastorate Dr. Rush gave to the 
pastor, whoever he might be, the most cordial and sympathetic 
support. It was his supreme delight to preach the Gospel, and 
he often responded to the invitation to occupy the pulpit, but he 
would sit with equal grace an humble worshiper in the pew. How 
thoroughly unselfish he was in thought and life! In everything 
how disinterested! No vanity was to be found in his soul. His 
instinctive modesty and reticence rendered it impossible to obtrude 
his strong personality when he felt that it should be repressed 
for the sake of another. Sometimes the position of a resident 
minister is fraught with difficulty and embarrassment. It is so 
easy for him to be misunderstood. But Dr. Rush possessed a 
fine sense of propriety, and was so sensitive to the proper ameni- 
ties of his position that no pastor would have the remotest reason 
for any embarrassment from his presence in the parish. Far 
from it ! On the other hand the pastor had abundant reason for 
profound gratitude for the encouragement and noble assistance so 
freely given by this generous-hearted preacher. His kind word 
of appreciation is never forgotten. His friendly greeting and 
kindly interest are a constant inspiration to the pastor. And 
how real, how sincere his whole attitude was ! There was noth- 
ing disingenuous in the nature of this great, good man. He did 
not seem conscious, even, of his own immense superiority but 
adapted himself naturally and easily to his surroundings, anxious, 
simply, that God's will should be done. Such, to the writer, was 
Rev. Henry Yount Rush, both as a man and as a preacher. The 
memory of those years in which we were thrown together in the 
most sacred relations will ever be cherished with grateful appre- 
ciation. O. P. Furnas. 

Note. — The above worthy tribute was written by Bro. Furnas 
in the midst of very pressing pastoral duties, and the preaching of 
many funerals, yet it comes like the heartfelt message of one who 
knew Dr. Rush intimately and knew how to appreciate him. We 
are grateful for such an excellent tribute. — The Author. 



FROM A SOUTHERN FRIEND 

Suffolk, Va., March 13, 1905. 

Rev. H. Y. Rush, D. D., West Milton, Ohw. 

My Dear Brother : — I visited Rev. R. H. Holland two weeks 
ago and, while there, his daughter handed me, at his request, your 
letter of February 17th, which he asked me to answer for him as 
he was not able to answer it himself. 

He has been confined for some weeks with the grippe, is now 
in his eighty-sixth year, and besides this, he had a slight stroke 
of paralysis last year from which he has not fully recovered. He 
is, however, improving slowly and his son, who is a physician, 



REMINISCENCES AND TRIBUTES 87 

thinks he will get out again, though he thought otherwise him- 
self; but he is perfectly resigned to the will of the Lord and talks 
of his departure tenderly and beautifully. It is sweet to listen 
to him talk of going home. Capt. P. H. Lee, one of Holy Neck's 
aged and noble members, came to see him while I was there, and 
it was heavenly to see those old Christians embrace each other 
in tears of joy. It was patriarchal and Christian, too. 

He appreciated your letter very much, and especially the per- 
sonal references and the kind words you said about his usefulness 
as a minister, and his writings in the Sun. He regrets his pres- 
ent inability to answer your letter himself, and reciprocates in 
his heart all the good and nice things your letter contains about 
the estimation in which he is held by our brotherhood at the four 
points of the compass in our Zion. 

If he ever gets able to write, you may expect a letter from 
his own pen ; for your letter cheered him and did him much good. 
I doubt whether you ever wrote a letter that was so timely and 
brought so much comfort to an aged pilgrim, and at a time when 
it was needed most. It must have been inspired by the Spirit 
of the Lord. 

I am glad Dr. Barrett had such a good meeting in the Cov- 
ington church; and the results have been even larger since your 
letter was written. I preached for him the second Sunday in 
January, and wanted to stop to see you, but did not have time. 
If I have time next winter, I will come to see you and your good 
wife. I carried the specimens you gave me last year to Elon 
College and they have been properly labeled in your name as the 
donor, and you have not only my thanks but the thanks of all 
the officials of the institution. 

With best wishes for you and family, I am, 

Sincerely yours, 
W. W. Staley for Rev. R. H. Holland. 

Brother Holland esteems you and your letter more than I 
can express in words. 



PART TWO 



Introduction 

When I stood by the casket containing the mortal 
part of Dr. H. Y. Rush I realized more fully than ever 
before the value of his life. I have never found any one 
quite like him. I rejoice that one so competent as 
Brother Vaughan has felt the importance of preserving 
in permanent form and in such fascinating style so many 
of the sermons, addresses, essays, editorials, and other 
writings of that grand and noble man. Perhaps no one 
thing has impressed me more than the thoughtfulness of 
his life. It was his habit and joy to send letters and cards 
by the thousands to his friends and acquaintances recog- 
nizing and commenting upon some ordinary matter. If 
success crowned some effort the word of rejoicing w r as 
sent ; if affliction crossed a friend's pathway the letter of 
cheering sympathy quickly followed; if he saw in some 
field note in the church paper a suggestion, a practical 
method, how soon the author would receive a message 
thanking him for it and saying that it had been helpful. 
I learned of this little incident that left its impression 
upon me. He was in a city waiting for a car. A church 
was near by and a funeral service was being held. He 
stepped in and took a rear seat. He was impressed with 
the singing of a quartet and with the selection of the 
songs. He inquired the name of one of the singers and on 



90 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

reaching home wrote a note of appreciation to the quartet, 
telling how he had enjoyed and been helped by the song, 
though they were strangers to him. The following quota- 
tion from a letter received by the writer is another illus- 
tration of kindly interest at the birth of one of his chil- 
dren : "You and Sister Denison will please accept the 
congratulations of Mrs. Eush and myself on the arrival 
of the little but most precious life that came into your 
home on Inauguration Day. Such an event is a happy 
crisis in a family life — a new joy, a new hope, a new re- 
sponsibility to parentage. But so is the world's life re- 
newed, and so is the blessed work of Christ carried on. 
Parents pass away, but consecrated children take up their 
noble tasks of life, and push on all movements for the 
world's betterment to the day of full millennial dawn. 
The Good Shepherd bless and carry the lamb tenderly 
and safely in His warm bosom. " I have given this per- 
sonal note now so appreciated, and referred to this ordi- 
nary custom of his life to show the spirit which breathed 
through all his sermons and writings. Do you wonder 
that they were messages with life and went from the heart 
to other hearts? I urge upon ministers and other Chris 
tian workers the value of a careful study of the message 
contained in the volume. Not only is its thought splen- 
did but it is clothed in such elegant and chaste language, 
so plain that a child may readily grasp its meaning. Its 
simplicity is its charm. One loves to read and re-read 
his writings. 

Dr. Rush's messages from lips and life were the same. 
His character was so unselfish, he was so modest and re- 
tiring in his nature that he would willingly be out of 
sight and unknown if only the work might be advanced, 
the Lord honored and souls saved. In an ordinary letter 
to me these words are found in the very heart of it ; "Xottj- 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 91 

ing among us is more needed than a true brotherhood, an 
eye-to-eye view of the work given us by the Master, and a 
constant, loving, intelligent co-operation in carrying to 
success our people's high and providential mission". He 
had an eye that looked into the very heart of things. 
When the Civil War broke out he was a school teacher 
and on the cover of his school register were such senti- 
ments expressed : "The thing most to be feared now is not 
how long the war will continue or how it will end but 
will the nation do right, leaving the consequences." 

When he was in the army and was preparing for bat- 
tle he sent a New Testament to one of his former pupils 
and on the fly leaf were found these words : "But among 
the precious objects I cannot carry and cannot throw 
away is this New Testament, these precious words of light 
and life. To you then, my dear little pupil, the son of my 
faithful brother and sister in Christ, to you I give and 
recommend this book, praying you to make it the guide of 
your life, the lamp of your path, your support in affliction, 
and your title in Christ to an eternal life. Devote your 
life to Christianity and the good of your country. Be 
swayed by no prejudices, no party and selfish spirit. 
Always be prepared and willing to die if Providence so 
orders it." 

He was not only a minister in the pulpit but a man 
among men, sympathetic, patriotic, and a practical 
Christian. Through his writings his name has become 
a household word. His written message and his life 
message was, preach the Word, live the Christ life. 

May the Lord grant to each reader of this volume the 
spirit of our brother Bush, and to the church an unfailing 



92 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

succession of men to carry out the Gospel directions and 
fulfil it in its spirit and its letter. 

The messages of the book will help to do this. 

Warren Hathaway Denison. 

Huntington, Indiana, July, 1911. 

Note. — The foregoing Introduction was very kindly prepared 
at my request by the one who preached the funeral sermon in 
memory of Dr. Rush, and who knew how to appreciate his life and 
worth as a minister of the Gospel, Rev. W. II. Denison, D. D.. 
long-time pastor of the Troy Christian Church. — The Author. 

Note — In the Sermons which follow the italicized words were 
underscored in the manuscript of Rev. Rush. — The Author. 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 93 

THE SEA 

(Covington, Ohio, September 29, 1901.) 

TEXT — "But the wicked are like the troubled sea. 
when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt" 
—Isaiah 57:20. 

We speak of the repose of a mountain, but the billows 
of the ocean are ever rising and falling. There are three 
principal causes of the restlessness of the sea : 

1. One reason why the sea cannot rest is because of 
its vastness. 

A pool may be without a ripple, but the billows of the 
ocean are restless because of the five miles of water be- 
neath them, and of the mighty expanse about them. So 
the soul of man is too vast to rest. It rocks with an 
eternity beneath it — with infinitude above it. My hearer, 
if you ever allow sin to stir these infinite depths of heart 
and conscience, no power can restore their peace save that 
which calmed the mad billows of Galilee. Guards who 
day and night watch at the cell of condemned criminals, 
testify to their distress while awake and when in fitful 
sleep. The condemned criminal utters involuntary 
groans, and gives other evidence of unrest like that of the 
sea. Like a beast in pain the miserable assassin, whose 
very name should perish, walked his cell day and night 
after the awful deed at Buffalo, with looks, mutterings 
and gesticulations of anguish. The sea of his disturbed 
soul ebbed and flowed with billows of torment. The 
flames were kindled and his hell had begun. 

2. Another reason why the sea cannot rest, is be- 
cause of its attractions both heavenward and earthward. 

The shy is influencing the ocean to rise, and the earth 



94 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

— gravitation — is saying to it, "Come lackf and thus we 
have the sea's unrest, its murmurs — its ebb and flow. 

Are not our souls acted upon by these two opposite 
influences — the heavenly and the earthly? Earth calls 
to us to seek her treasures, and heaven says to us, "Lay up 
your treasures here/' Acted upon by these two opposite 
influences, our souls are restless like the sea. 

Again, there are winds that sweep along the ocean 
and fret it into agitation. So there are the circum- 
stances incident to this life that agitate and disturb the 
soul. Financial reverses, domestic afflictions, social dis- 
ruptions, betrayals of confidence, political animosities, 
temptations yielded to, the risings of remorse, the cloud- 
ing of hope — all these are like winds that sweep the coast 
and fret the sea to its very center. But the troubled 
waters of the Christian's soul cast up no "mire and dirt." 
Jesus has cleansed that soul to its depths. Nothing can 
fret it into hatred of brethren, into doubt, backsliding or 
Judas-like betrayal. Let God be praised that this great 
sea of the soul can be cleansed to its depths! Oh, my 
brother, 

"Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? 
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb ? 

Are you fully trusting in his grace this hour? 
Are you wash'd in the blood of the Lamb? 

***In the soi^-cleansing blood of the Lamb?" 

When grace has brought to one this cleansing, his 
wickedness is taken away, and under no storm, agitation, 
provocation, will his soul "cast up mire and dirt." If 
this corruption is nowhere down in the depths of his heart 
it will not come up on to his lips, nor go out into his life. 

"Our deeds thus travel with us from afar, 
And what we have been makes us what we are." 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 95 

II. The sea is made a symbol of memory's power to 
bring to light that which seems forgotten. 

Sometimes the great waters roll up upon the beach 
articles that long ago disappeared in their depths. One 
mind may readily summon and command its impressions ; 
another may not; but alike imperishable is all that is 
vivid on its surface or hidden in its depths. 

It is said that Horace Greeley would take a morning 
paper, read rapidly column after column, and then quote 
accurately word for word. 

We may wish we had such a memory as that, but 
when we come to stand at the judgment seat, we shall find 
ourselves in possession of a memory of whose faithfulness 
we were here ignorant. 

Memory faithfully holds in its grasp all the past ac- 
tions of our life. The early impressions of childhood 
give mold of good or evil to the grown-up man. The 
Nihilist of Southern Europe, of Poland, of Kussia, teaches 
his heresy, his hatred of divine and of civil authority to 
his sons. They remember these teachings and retain 
these impressions. They grow to manhood, immigrate to 
this country, perjure themselves into citizenship, and 
then seek, by stealth or trick, to stab the very government 
that gave them liberties offered by no other land. This 
bad element in our population — this offscouring of Old 
World monarchies, has been cast up by the restless sea of 
socialism, atheism, malice and malcontent. It has been 
drifted by ill winds across the Atlantic to imperil the lives 
of our public men, mock at God, the Bible, the Sabbath, 
our free schools, the marriage relation and the home. It 
is a demon and a danger that will be met by patriotic and 
non-partisan resistance. All parties will approve such 
legislation as will not only suppress this anarchical ele- 
ment, but eradicate it from the country. Storms of the 



96 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

sea result in stauncher ships, and our "ship of state" will 
be made equal to any occasional or unforeseen commotion 
that rocks for the moment this ark bearing our civil lib- 
erties. Such legislation will make our country all the 
more secure amid the agitations that cast up the mire and 
dirt of anarchical heresy and hatred. 

I was saying that pain or pleasure, impressions for 
patriotism, for Christ, for exalted character, were largely 
the result of memory and of early impressions. Memory 
is a deep sea, which, in manhood's day, casts up either 
treasures that gladden and enrich, or "mire and dirt" to 
disappoint and to distress. 

What greater punishment, therefore, could befall a 
sinful man or woman, than an eternity of bitter recollec- 
tions ! 

A few years ago (November 8, 1881), a Mr. Sullivan, 
a convicted train robber, died in prison. He was twenty- 
three years of age, and the term of imprisonment to which 
he was sentenced was twenty years. Soon after his im- 
prisonment be complained of being ill. The prison phy- 
sician found no symptoms of physical ailment. After 
awhile a letter from home reached him. That letter stir- 
red afresh the loving recollections of his innocent and 
happy home life. Immediately he grew worse until he 
was delirious. His face grew dark, and waving his 
hands wildly, he muttered in broken sentences : "Oh, how 
my good father is humbled because of my crime and my 

condition. And my mother ! Suddenly he raised 

his head, looked intently toward the door, and fell back 
dead! The prison physicians, in returning the certificate 
of death, could assign no other cause than remorse and 
despair. If in this world the memory of sin can kill a 
man, what tremendous power may memory have when 
awakened as it will be at the Judgment Seat! Truly are 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 97 

the wicked like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, 
"whose waters cast up mire and dirt." 

Young man, preserve your memory from pollution. 
When once corrupted, the profane jest or the lewd picture 
will fasten itself in the brain, dwell in the imagination, 
and re-appear in your nightly dreams. From such a 
mind all beautiful images are driven out, and filthiest 
pictures cover its walls. Such a memory is like a filthy 
pool wherein fish die and frogs live. Imperishable mem- 
ory ! — keep all its treasures pure. What you learn from 
bad habits and in bad society you will never forget. Its 
memory and its curse will be a thorn and a pang to you. 
John B. Gough said : "I confess before God, that I would 
give my right hand to-night if I could forget what I have 
learned in bad society." The very memory of these 
things was like the troubled sea, continually casting up 
mire and dirt. 

III. The sea is referred to in teaching the fulness 
of Divine forgiveness. The prophet Micah says: "And 
thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea." 

Here sin is compared to a heavy substance, as iron, 
which, when cast into the sea, is gone from sight forever. 
Thus, God abundantly pardons. Men instinctively feel 
the need of such forgiveness. 

A minister, by request, visited a dying man, and be- 
gan to sing the hymn, "There is a land of pure delight," 
He was interrupted by the sick man with the request that 
he would sing the hymn, 

"There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from ImmanuePs veins. 
And sinners" etc. 

IV. The sea is referred to in predicting the final 
triumphs of Christianity. 



98 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Isaiah says : "The earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the Lord, as the waters cover the deep." 

As the waters cover the bed of the sea in every part — 
inlet, bay, harbor, and depression of the coast, so shall the 
day come when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
the Lord. 

That knowledge has already vastly extended. It was 
proclaimed to multitudes as early as the day of Pentecost, 
and from Jerusalem it flowed like water through many 
nations. Gibbon himself confesses that by the time of 
Constantine eight millions had confessed the religion of 
Jesus. 

Paris is justly spoken of as a city of infidelity, and 
yet in Paris only five persons in a hundred are buried 
without any religious rites whatever. Thousands there 
are who will not obey the gospel who desire at last a 
Christian burial, and shrink from a death that has not in 
it at least some feeble hope of pardon, and of paradise. 

Bayard Taylor mentions the striking fact that in the 
foulest dens of the slums of New York, he found the por- 
traits of good men and noble women. These vilest char- 
acters of the great city, under the impression that Chris- 
tianity had made even indirectly upon them, thus pay 
tribute to the searching and saving power of the Christian 
religion. In the deep sea of memory there still remained 
something better than "mire and dirt." 

V. The sea also illustrates the mysteries of Divine 
Providence. 

The Psalmist, speaking of Jehovah, says: "Thy way 
is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy 
footsteps are not knoven." 

If a man could walk across the Atlantic, who could 
find his footsteps in the waves? Great battles have been 
fought on the sea, but no monuments point out the place 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 99 

of conflict. Great men have been buried from stately 
steamships, and ships of war, but no headstones mark 
their resting-place beneath the waves. Mighty vessels 
have ploughed the sea's smooth bosom and rough billows, 
but covered, hidden and mysterious are their pathways. 
So are the footsteps of God in Providence unknown. 
Happy is the man who is content to traverse this ocean 
to the "haven of rest," without presuming to explore its 
depths in the wretched diving bells of his own doubts and 
fancies. Let us leave God's secrets to himself. It is 
enough that He invites us into his court; — let us not ask 
to sit in his council. Of necessity the government of the 
wise and good Father transcends the understanding of 
his children. We need not try to explain it. God's 
footsteps in the sea we may be able to discern by and by. 
Paul himself lived by faith and not by sight. Only in 
this precious faith could the dying President have said: 
"This is God's way ; His will, not ours, be done !" That 
which now seems an illegible handwriting may resolve 
into letters of gold, and into sentences of simple and pre- 
cious meaning. 

Among some recent electrical experiments is one with 
letters upon a wall. The letters appear to be black, but 
they cannot be distinguished so as to make out words and 
sentences. Suddenly a light is in some way flashed 
through the letters, and then it is seen that they are not 
black, but formed of gold-leaf, and by the light you can 
make out words and complete sentences. 

So to us the messages of Divine Providence, as they 
appear in this sin-darkened world, seem altogether ob- 
scure, and too confused to be legible. But when the 
light of eternity shall flash through that writing, we shall 
see that the letters were not black, but golden, and we 



100 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

shall read clearly the complete sentence : "All things work 
together for good to them that love God." 

This working, transforming energy belongs only to 
God. He is infinitely wise and infinitely able. He pos- 
sesses a transmuting power that turns losses into gain; 
grief into joy, pain into infinite pleasure. Even the grat- 
ing discords of earth may ascend to the celestial dome, 
and echo in sweetest harmonies there. 

One of the cathedrals of the old world has a dome of 
marvelous construction. Standing in the dome, you hear 
the sweetest music. You look in vain for the performer. 
Whence comes the music? The edifice is so arranged 
that every footfall in the room below, every opening of 
the door, every whisper, every cry, every groan, — even the 
murmur of the restless sea near by, — is carried up into 
that dome, and worked over, blended, harmonized, until 
all is a melody of richest sound. So eternity may take 
up the discordant elements of this lower world, — our ex- 
periences of joy and sorrow, of loss and gain, of victory 
and defeat, — and blend them into enrapturing music for- 



ever 



VI. The sea is also an emblem of eternity. 

"Yes, thou art almighty, 

Eternal, sublime, 
Unweakened, unwanted, 

Twin brother of Time ! 

"Fleets, tempests, nor nations 

Thy glory can bow ; 
As the stars first beheld thee, 

Still chainless art thou !" 

It is not eternal — simply the emblem of eternity. 
Not eternal for when the ocean has ceased to roll ; when 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 101 

the last ship has crossed the wide waters to return no 
more ; when the tide has gone out to come in never again, 
the Lord shall still live. Hushed forever "the voice of 
many waters/' but undying shall be the praises of the re- 
deemed. Saints shall live, and sing, and soar on tireless 
wing when there is no more sea. 

A father relates that he sat in a room by the sea-side, 
holding the hand of his dying child. He felt the chill of 
death in those little fingers; and as he stooped to kiss 
the tiny brow, he felt the breath of the grave. Through 
the dull grey of the morning he looked out of the window, 
and saw the strong-beating breakers of the deep, rushing 
up the strand in their majesty and might, as if in proud 
contrast with the feeble, ebbing life. Just as the tide 
went out, that innocent spirit also departed. Holding 
the little cold hand in his, the father, through his tears, 
cried : "O sea ! roll on, if thou wilt ! Thy years are num- 
bered by thy sands, but this little life, caught up to dwell 
with angels, will outlive thine own, and will look down 
in triumph when there is — "no more sea !" 

O O O 

DWELLING IN UNITY 

(Sermon before Coleman Commandery No. 17, K. T., 
Troy, Ohio, on Ascension Sunday, May 22, 1898.) 

TEXT — (C Behold Jww good, and how pleasant it is 
for brethren to dwell together in unity." — Ps. 133 : 1. 

"In unity." The human race is a unit. It is so 
by creation, and by the bond of sacred brotherhood. So 
teaches science; so teaches Revelation. The religious 
obligation of this lesson, as Christ gave it interpretation, 
was to the world a new announcement. The early 6e- 



102 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

lievers were slow to accept it as declared by Peter at the 
house of Cornelius. The Lord had caused Peter to behold 
a thrice-repeated vision, the peculiar nature of which 
impelled him to declare: "Of a truth I perceive that God 
is no respecter of persons ; but in every nation he that fear- 
eth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with 
Him." Fifteen years later, or about the year 54 after 
Christ, Paul, in the midst of Mars 3 Hill, voiced the truth 
of this brotherhood as to man's physical origin. He said: 
"God giveth to all life and breath, and all things; and 
hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all 
the face of the earth." 

Moreover, the Creator of man has endowed him with 
certain instincts, shown to be common to all the five races. 
Among these intuitions is the social impulse — the desire 
for society. This desire for society tends ultimately to 
alliances of friendship. It crystallizes into organizations 
of system and rule — into pledges of benevolence and mu- 
tual aid. 

Perhaps the most primitive, distinctive and generally 
prevailing of such organizations, is the one worshiping 
in this lodge room to-day. The centuries upon centuries 
of its existence have given it wide prevalence. It is so ex- 
tended over the earth that any one of these brethren, if 
familiar with its ancient signs and usages, might travel 
the world over, taking every step and reposing every night 
under the iegis of Masonic protection. In the dense for- 
est there are tribes of Red-men that would recognize your 
signs and take you through the ceremonies of this Fra- 
ternity. Upon the sandy desert you might participate in 
the rites of the craft as practiced by the Arabs since the 
days of Solomon. Their forms have all the philosophy 
and meaning of those common to our own country and 
times. I speak of these facts in illustration of the propo- 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 103 

sition that these forms of fraternal and business organiza- 
tion, are the result of a high order of universal social in- 
stinct and sense of interdependence. Such mention is 
made not as intimating that there is anything supernat- 
ural in the origin of Masonry, more than in the founding 
of any other social or business compact, primitive or pres- 
ent. Only the church of Jesus Christ is an institution 
of heaven's own planting. Nevertheless, there is an ele- 
ment of Providence in the springing up of any movement 
that is an outgrowth of man's social necessity, or of other 
divinely-given instincts. Man has a soul-longing for 
brotherhood, unity, sympathy, and any organization that 
springs into being to make more possible these blessings 
of brotherhood, is in some measure a growth from a super- 
natural germ and is co-operative with Christianity. In 
its very nature such an organization must confess, as does 
Masonry, the being of God, and give reverence to His 
holy name. Therefore it is that a candidate for Masonic 
degrees must, at the very threshold of the order, acknowl- 
edge the existence of a Supreme Being ; must, by emblem 
and act, be impressed w T ith the necessity of prayer to Him, 
and of reliance upon His protection. Farther along he 
must have emblemized to his mind the moral precepts of 
the Scriptures, the momentous truths of the crucifixion, 
the resurrection, the ascension of Christ, and of being and 
blessedness through Him for the righteous beyond the 
tomb. Any organization, however, which believes in God, 
must, in order to be consistent with itself, also teach and 
impress certain fundamental, immutable principles of 
truth and right. Hence this ancient order, in its specula- 
tive and emblematic forms, displays to the eye, and calls 
to remembrance, "the most sublime truths, in the midst of 
the most innocent and social pleasures, founded on lib- 
erty, brotherly love, and charity." 



104 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

The earliest forms in which moral truths were repre- 
sented, were those of symbol and allegory. The Great 
Teacher of the universe put the infant race back into this 
very alphabet of all knowledge. His chosen people became 
as a kindergarten in which every learner's eye was turned 
upon such intelligible objects of sight and sense as repre- 
sented moral and religious truth. All nature is to the 
soul a vocabulary of symbols — a ready-prepared reposi- 
tory of signs. These visible forms give impulse to 
thought, assist reflection, and fasten great lessons upon 
heart and memory. Such signs and analogies from the 
material world God has ever employed to instruct His 
children. The principle upon which symbolic language 
depends is thus seen to be deep-seated in man's nature. 
How proper it therefore appears that in religion and in 
all fraternal relations the voiceless language of sign and 
symbol 'should play no unimportant part. It is easy to 
discover why the Old Testament religion should be largely 
a religion of imposing ceremonial and sumptuous symbol- 
ism. Holiness was impressed upon the mind by the in- 
scription of divine precepts upon sacred utensils, upon the 
door-posts, upon the garments of priest and people, and 
even upon the bells of the horses. For the purpose of 
teaching, one such illustration is worth a thousand ab- 
stractions. Such symbols are the windows of speech 
through which the truth shines. They are object-lessons 
which the common mind and the most cultured may learn 
with ease, pleasure and enduring profit. It is a fact, too, 
that in every age of chivalry, in every age of our holy 
Christianity, badge, and grip, and word, and token, mystic 
shrine and sacramental symbol, have answered the high 
ends of plighted friendship, holy fellowship, and worship. 
To promote these relations between man and man, and 
man and his Maker, Providence has brought to bear all 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 105 

the paraphernalia of history — churches, synagogues, tem- 
ples, altars, priests and liturgies. 

We thus see how that which is largely characteristic 
of Masonry — which is an outgrowth of man's higher na- 
ture and higher needs, runs parallel in its principles with 
the earliest religious rites of the race. We see that so 
far as human institutions answer those high ends, they are 
as important in their human place as are the divine helps 
in their divine place. 

Any organization among men growing out of human 
instincts and human interdependence, would, by reason of 
its own origin, maintain and teach the true principles of a 
happy and enduring social compact. In other words, it 
would teach that it is good and pleasant for brethren to 
dwell together in unity. Hence in receiving even the ele- 
mentary degrees of this ancient order, the candidate is 
instructed to exercise brotherly love, "to abstain from all 
malice, slander and evil speaking ; from all provoking, re- 
proachful, and ungodly language, keeping always a tongue 
of good report." This order, in all its ancient history, has 
fostered peace in the state, and peace in domestic and 
neighborhood life. In these principles it is said to run 
parallel in age and in distinctive teaching with the Mosaic 
jurisprudence itself. Therefore the manual says that the 
order has ever flourished in times of peace, and been 
always injured by war, bloodshed and confusion ; so that 
kings and princes in all ages, have been much disposed to 
encourage the craftsmen on account of their peaceable- 
ness and loyalty. * * * * Craftsmen are bound by pecu- 
liar ties to promote peace, cultivate harmony, and live 
in concord and brotherly love. * * * * No private of- 
fenses, or disputes about nationality, families, religions 
or politics, must be brought within the doors of the 
lodge. On this principle the craft unites men of every 



106 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

community, sect, opinion, and conciliates true friendship 
among those who might otherwise have remained at a per- 
petual distance. 

And yet there is nothing in Masonic obligations that 
interferes with any duty to God, country, family, or self. 
On the contrary, the craft regards with most cordial favor 
whatever has bearing for the betterment of humanity. 
The brotherhood has ever looked with interest upon every 
struggle by which men rise above their animal conditions, 
or by which — as now in Cuba — men seek freedom from 
long-borne burdens and chaotic anarchy. For centuries 
Spain has been their barbarous oppressor and the whole 
American heart grows hot with a sense of the atrocity. If 
such barbarism be indifferently permitted, then civiliza- 
tion drifts backward, and the liberty-loving sentiment of 
Masons, Odd Fellows, Pythians — all true Americans — 
becomes a nullity. Many Masonic fathers laid down their 
lives for our present national liberties. I doubt not that 
their sons would to-day pay the price of blood to vindicate 
the sanctity of justice, of brotherhood, — of chastity, and 
of outraged, helpless womanhood. True, our craft teaches 
moral chivalry, manliness, moral knighthood. But those 
who are down, and cannot themselves arise, appeal most 
piteously to our 'physical as well as moral knighthood. It 
is beautiful, too, that in every struggle for the right our 
sympathies turn to the weaker side. Our hearts go with 
the lad David down in the valley to meet Goliath. All our 
sympathies side with Leonidas and his three hundred. If 
a small, helpless island near our borders, writhes under 
the misrule of a parent power across the sea, to us there 
is music in every broadside and bursting bomb that 
prophecies that island's freedom. In war and in peace 
our order rallies in sympathy to all the suffering — to all 
the needs of men — of men of all nationalities, of all diver- 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 107 

sities of condition, education or fortune. Broad is the 
field of philanthropy. Everywhere may we show ourselves 
merciful companions and pilgrims by the multitude and 
magnitude of our gifts. But no Mason — no man or wo- 
man — need go far to find some one worthy of pity and help 
— some one who impersonates his poor and suffering Mas- 
ter. Here in your own beautiful city, nestled in a valley 
of Nile-like fertility, there is a field for mercy. In many 
homes, factories and workshops, the Good Samaritan's 
word or helping hand may do service. Want and sorrow, 
in some form, tread every stone of your sidewalks. There 
is not a carved pillar or iron railing against which throb- 
bing hearts have not leaned. We do well, brethren, if by 
our patriotism, by our humanity, by our symmetrical man- 
hood, we rise to that eminence of humane usefulness en- 
joined in our every lecture and reflected in every jewel. 

Could all fraternities, all communities, rise to the 
unity taught in the text, it would be to them the one 
casket containing many jewels. In oneness of heart and 
effort there is enclasped almost every other good. Our 
precepts bearing upon brotherly unity shine like gems 
upon our ritual pages. May the cement "of love and 
affection" bind in close affiliation all the brotherhoods 
here represented. Our order has much to do with the his- 
tory of ancient Israel. It was this spirit of unity that 
made Israel great, and at one time invincible in war. It 
was the decay of national brotherhood and unity that rent 
her in twain and made her an easy prey to her enemies. 
When that people lost their spirit of mutual helpfulness, 
disintegration began. In the nation, in the church, in all 
fraternal compacts, if one member suffer, all the other 
members suffer with it. Problems of humanity that affect 
one section of the country are as vital in all other parts 
of the land. The race problem of South Carolina is a 



108 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

question equally serious to every sister state. The earth- 
quake that shook Charleston sent its waves afar, and 
every Ohio home trembled under its transmitted shock. 
The flames that laid Chicago in ruins, leaped up with a 
brightness that revealed in every sister city, of every land, 
the beauty of brotherly kindness. We live under God's 
irrevocable law of universal fraternity and unity. There- 
fore the most fallen and degraded man or woman has a 
claim upon every cultured, aesthetic member of every 
richly-carpeted lodge, or occupant of cushioned pew. So 
far only as we recognize this claim to brotherhood and 
mutual helpfulness, can Masonry, or kindred orders, be 
prosperous. That victory over poverty and want, ignor- 
ance, selfishness, oppression, which an Omnipotent arm 
could win at a single blow, God allows us to secure by 
centuries of human effort. We unsheathe our swords un- 
der the "Great Captain of the host," and to the good 
soldier there is more virtue in the fight than in the vic- 
tory. Eeally, they only have fought the good fight who 
have helped some one else to fight it. Sublime battle! — - 
not waged by mailed warrior, — not fought with sword, 
and lance, and battle axe; — not fought by men only, but 
pressed to the gates by such souls as George Muller, 
George Peabody, David Livingstone, Phillips Brooks, 
Florence Nightingale, Frances Willard and Clara Barton. 

In attaining the brotherly unity of the text our order 
does well in giving marked prominence to the Word of 
God — in making it first of "the three great lights of Ma- 
sonry. The Bible inculcates love to all men. That we 
may be well instructed in the qualities that intertwine us 
into sacred and inseparable brotherhood, our manuals 
abound in quotations from this volume of inspiration. 
The order teaches, emblemizes, illustrates much of Bible 
precept and history, and even founds upon these some of 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 109 

its most beautiful, impressive and inspiring degrees. Nor 
is there small significance in the fact that an open Bible, 
with square and compasses, lies upon every Masonic altar, 
and adds sanctity to every fraternal obligation. 

That such an order grows; that it attracts to itself 
and assimilates so much of the young manhood, the busi- 
ness ability, the social, intellectual, industrial life of 
society, is but a natural and happy result. Toward all 
well-organized fraternities; toward all organizations that 
are religious, moral, humane, patriotic, mutually helpful, 
the best and truest men will be attracted. To it states- 
men, patriots, educators, authors, merchants, mechanics, 
artisans, — all classes of honest, industrious men, are 
drawn. But they are drawn by the highest of all affinities 
toward that only divinely-founded institution among men, 
the church of Jesus Christ. 

It is man's innate tendency to social unity and to 
brotherhood alliances, for mutual good and other laud- 
able ends, that identified so many of our forefathers, 
revolutionary statesmen and patriots, with this fraternity. 
Benjamin Franklin, that world-renowned statesman and 
philosopher, was Master of the second lodge of this order 
in the United States — instituted at Philadelphia in the 
year 1774. The first Grand-Master was Gen. Joseph War- 
ren, who fell a martyr to liberty's cause on the heights of 
Bunker Hill. Most of the leading men who engaged in the 
Revolutionary struggle were members of the fraternity. 
So, also, were most of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, and but one Major-General in the Revolu- 
tionary War is known not to have belonged to the same 
brotherhood, — and that was — Arnold. High in this an- 
cient order are written the names George Washington, 
La Fayette, John Marshall and a host of other patriots 
and statesmen conspicuous in our national history. But 



110 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

from these men there comes to us a yet greater lesson. 
Imagine them standing to-day before these sir knights — 
before all this people — and confessing by their own alle- 
giance to our Lord, that, excellent as were the tenets of 
the order, in their place and for their purpose, their only 
hope of a blissful immortality was by faith in and obedi- 
ence toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of them became 
exemplary members of different churches, and by their 
own quiet, peaceable lives said to the world, through both 
the lodge and church, Masonry and Christianity, that it 
is "good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in 
unity." Upon these eminent statesmen and fellow-coun- 
trymen seemed to fall the mantle of truth-revering Zerub- 
babel, of loving St. John, and the cross-bearing Cyrenean. 
May that mantle of consecration to good institutions, both 
(Urine and human, fall upon all fraternities represented 
in this assembly. So, too, will it he if we have a proper 
soul-longing for purity of life — for the attainment of those 
Christ-like qualities essential to admission to the celestial 
lodge, where the Supreme Architect of the universe pre- 
sides. 

Brethren of the "mystic tie," may it be our abiding 
purpose to display a high, chivalrous, Christian knight- 
hood in our daily life. May "no temptations draw us 
aside from the path of duty, or cause us to forget those 
due guards and pass-words which our very honor should 
hold in perpetual remembrance; and while one hand is 
wielding the sword for our companion in danger, let the 
other grasp the mystic trowel, and widely diffuse the gen- 
uine cement of brotherly love and friendship." In our 
fraternal harmony the world about us beholds a beauty 
beyond the exploits of martial strength and bravery. No 
achievements of war can cover one with honor like con- 
quest over self. 



SERMONS ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 111 

Masonry makes prominent one's duty to his family, 
and attaches importance to happiness in domestic life. 
Such a home is possible to no Mason who rules not his 
own spirit. Hence our rites, emblems, lectures, obligations 
are such as help to the mastery of one's foibles — those 
little infirmities of temper and tongue that make miser- 
able more homes than the tramp and invasion of armies. 
The excitable peevishness that kindles at trifles has in it 
no ingredient but that of gall. Its bitterness should be 
distilled into the cup of no Mason's wife or daughter. Our 
sublimest knighthood should be to drive captiousness from 
the castle of our souls — to cast out that acrid disposition 
which is a vitriol that eats into all it touches ; that leaves 
a sore at every spot ; a stain upon every thread of its ex- 
istence. Our order teaches us the self-control, the charity, 
that forbears; that gives up a little; that takes less than 
belongs to it; that endures more than should be put 
upon it. Do not weary, sir knights, at the little courtesies. 
It is the one thread, running in many ways, that composes 
all that the loom has ever woven. 

Before Christ's coming a skull — seemingly by common 
consent — was for ages an emblem of man's mortality. 
Christ came, and no longer did that emblem hold its 
cheerless association with the mold of the tomb and 
eternal extinction. Christ came. This Bible bears to us 
His words of life. And now to Masonic eyes that emblem 
of mortality "rests on divinity." I lay that skull down on 
the texts: "I am the resurrection and the life;" "Blessed 
are the dead that die in the Lord;" "He that liveth and 
believeth on me shall never die," — then all the gruesome- 
ness of that emblem is gone; then light breaks through 
the darkness; then angels in snowy garments sit in the 
sepulcher, and shadowy skeletons vanish from the imag- 
ination. 



112 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Yes, Jesus saw the world's ruin, and looked down 
upon it with a face flushed with an infinite compassion. 
He humbled Himself to become a helpless babe — to live a 
life of pilgrimage and poverty. His ministry finished, His 
many works of mercy done, He consents to die. Oh, the 
meaning of the cross we wear ! 

For us all, this loving, perfect Savior was crucified — 
was buried — his grave sealed with a great stone. Pro- 
founder than ever now seemed the problem that reached 
out into eternity. But he went down into the toml) that 
he might rise, and rule upon the throne; that he might 
intercede for our sinful souls; that His life might be re- 
produced in the life of His people. It is the infinite order- 
ing that all life grow out of death. We die daily to self 
and rise daily to richer, fuller life in Christ. We rise 
above the wrecks of selfish plans, and live. more truly for 
those we love. We are always dying and being born again 
into better and higher spheres. 

Risen from the tomb, Jesus must ascend to the Father, 
as He said. Hence His farewell words to His disciples. 
Then, with them, He went out to the mountain-side, ap- 
parently to a point where they could see Bethany, the 
village which He loved so well. Here, so near the home 
that love and hospitality had so endeared to Him, He lift- 
ed His hands in holiest benediction. While He pronounc- 
ed the words of blessing, He parted from them. Their 
longing eyes look a sad farewell ! They will see Him no 
more bearing weariness, hunger and the contempt of men. 
Satan will no more assault. He goes back to His native 
glory in the befitting splendor of a cloud. Dare we imag- 
ine the scene! He returns to the throne amid angels 
whose faces are solemn with a new awe. The first woman 
beholds at last her promised seed that has bruised the ser- 
pent's head. Adam rejoices to see the fearful work of his 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 113 

sin undone, and the race free to join itself to a new head. 
Prophets now behold sublime fulfilments, and priest and 
preacher look back upon the slain Lamb who himself ful- 
filled all the meaning of Mosaic rites — of innocent blood 
and spotless sacrifice. The babes of Bethlehem, slaught- 
ered all about the angel-guarded cradle of the infant 
Christ, lift up their hosannas as he moves in regal glory 
through their midst. Up He passes through the bowed 
ranks, among saints, and elders, and martyrs, beneath the 
emerald-glittering bow, to that glory whose brightness all 
our burnished jewels — all jasper and sardius — cannot 
express. On that highest height of the supreme throne of 
the ineffable God, he takes His place, to plead for our 
sinful souls. 

All this, sir knights, brethren, friends, all this is the 
stupendous mystery and meaning of the event we com- 
memorate to-day, the ascension of our triumphant Sav- 
ior. When we shall ascend to the heavenly asylum where 
he shall be our Grand Commander, then will there be per- 
fect fulfilment of all the meaning of the text; then we 
shall dwell forever in that perfect unity which shall distil 
as dew upon the heavenly Hermon, and descend upon the 
mountains of Zion above — forever. 

"Soar we soon where Christ hath led, 
Following our exalted Head; 
Made like Him, like Him we'll rise ; — 
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies." 



114 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

(Franklin, Ohio, January 3, 1886.) 

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom" — Prov. 
3:13. 

Within the last few days how often has been heard 
the olden phrase, "A Happy New Year!" In the home, 
on the street, wherever friend met friend, that salutation 
was heard. These words of friendly greeting suggest the 
line of thought appropriate to this first Sunday of the 
year 1886. 

1. We must concede the fact that many people, prob- 
ably the majority, are not happy. How many of those to 
whom you have spoken the salutation : "A Happy New 
Year," do you suppose are really happy? 

One has only to study the sad faces met with upon 
the street, in the market-place, in the railway car, and 
upon the boat, to be convinced that gladness, joy, exhila- 
ration — what the world generally calls happiness — is a 
rare experience — a rare possession. 

The more necessary is it, therefore, that you cordially 
and sincerely extend this accustomed greeting. It may 
lighten some burden and obliterate from the troubled face 
some line of care. 

2. Happiness is not found in fame or worldly hon- 
ors. If you buy these, their price is perplexity. The day- 
laborer in Franklin receives a larger pleasure of life than 
does the Czar of Russia. Ask Victoria's glittering crown : 
"Canst thou give me happiness." Its jewels will answer : 
"We can adorn the head, but we cannot satisfy the heart." 

After the death of Abderman, Caliph of Cordova, 
the following paper was found in his own handwriting: 
"Fifty years have elapsed since I became caliph. I have 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 115 

possessed riches, honors, pleasures, friends, in short, 
everything that man can desire in this world. I have 
reckoned up the days in which I could say I was really 
happy, and they amount to fourteen." 

The young, the aged, the rich and the poor, each has 
trouble peculiar to his particular condition in life. 

Elevation to office brings happiness to no one. The 
czar of Russia is in constant dread of assassination. 
Even good Queen Victoria is under the constant watch of 
guards and sentinels. President Cleveland bears a burden 
of care, and suffers from want of sleep more than the 
hardest worker in this house. 

After Garfield's death his w T ife was invited to go to 
the White House. She replied : "Oh, no, I cannot go 
there : the saddest days of my life have been passed in that 
house !" 

Those who live by manual labor generally suppose 
that happiness is found only in the so-called higher pro- 
fessions. Hence, too many of our young men, instead of 
learning a trade, aspire to merchandise and medicine, the 
law and political life. This is a great mistake. The 
average farmer or mechanic of to-day has less worry and 
anxiety and makes a better living than the average lawyer 
and physician. There is no happiness in the high pro- 
fessions when hunger pinches, clothing is threadbare, the 
purse empty, and creditors clamoring. 

3. Happiness is not found in the possession of 
wealth. 

The large majority of mankind think that to be rich 
is to be happy. There can be no true happiness in that 
which over-burdens the body. Could that man have been 
happy who last summer came all the way from England to 
visit an old Connecticut burying-ground? Three graves 
were opened. This was done to find a signet ring believed 



116 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

to have been buried with its wearer, one of the earliest set- 
tlers of Connecticut. The ring was wanted to make good 
a claim to certain property in England, a question having 
been raised as to the authenticity of the impression on 
certain seals. The necessary permission having been 
procured, the English lawyer sifted, with the utmost care, 
the dust of three of the graves of persons buried nearly 
a hundred years ago. But the dust of mortality yielded 
up no ring, and the lawyer returned to England empty- 
handed. 

When property is the object of pursuit, the ocean is 
no barrier, and the ashes of the dead are not too sacred to 
be disturbed. 

But wealth does not bring happiness. I am ac- 
quainted with some rich people, and know that they have 
their troubles. Frequently, too, riches are the direct 
cause of unhappiness. Those who were contented, hum- 
ble, useful, happy, when poor, have too often become 
vain, haughty spendthrifts and prodigals when made rich. 

Illustration : In West Virginia lived a farmer by the 
name of Drake. The father was an old soldier. The 
family had lived in peace and harmony until a few weeks 
ago. They were poor, but recently the father was allow- 
ed a pension amounting to several thousand dollars. On 
receiving the money, the family fell into contention over 
its distribution, and a general fight ensued, during the 
excitement of which the old man, without having touched 
the money, fell dead from heart disease. A happy fam- 
ily, until a few thousand dollars entered the home ! 

4. Much happiness may be found in doing good to 
others. Oliver Cromwell had a very intimate friend. 
Those who sought favors of Cromwell asked through this 
friend, and the favors were generally granted. After a 
time Cromwell said : "When are you going to ask a favor 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 117 

for yourself?" His answer was, "I find all the joy I 
wish in securing good to others." 

5. As a rule it may be said that happiness sought 
is seldom obtained. 

Like the Presidency of the United States, it is not for 
those who toil for it. Daniel Webster worked hard for 
the presidency, but obtained it not. The same is true of 
Henry Clay and Lewis Cass. In the majority of cases 
the men who quietly pursue their usual calling and do not 
covet that prize, are the ones who win it. So it is with 
happiness. It is found not in actively seeking it, but in 
quietly pursuing your duty in life. 

In old age President Knox, the college president, said 
to a young couple he had just married: "Take an old 
man's advice. If you seek happiness you will find it not. 
Do your duty in life and happiness will come to you." 

6. Consider that time may render you happy amid 
circumstances which now seem unfavorable to happiness. 
During the reign of King Charles the First, an officer was 
placed in a dark dungeon. For several days he could 
see nothing. Then he could see the outlines of the walls. 
Then he could see to count the stones which composed the 
walls of the dungeon. The more he became accustomed 
to the prison, the less intense was the darkness. Time 
alone rendered his condition more endurable. We are so 
constituted that in time we may become adjusted to 
almost any circumstance or condition in life. Your sur- 
roundings may now seem gloomy, but as you become used 
to them, the gloom will become less intense. Even dun- 
geon experiences will grow brighter. 

7. Happiness is greatly hindered by the habit of 
borrowing trouble. 

If you are looking into the future and see there the 
poor-house, and nothing but trouble, you cannot be happy. 



1 18 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

This borrowing of trouble is a constant habit with some 
persons. Instead of praying, "Give us this day our 
daily bread/' they must see fifty years' supply ahead of 
them, or they worry and fret. Such people cannot be 
happy. 

Never anticipate trouble. Eemember the familiar 
proverb, and "do not cross the bridge before you come 
to it." The dark day which you imagine you see five or 
ten years ahead, may transpire to be a 6 right day. 

In the winter of 1G30 the Bay Colony, in Massachu- 
setts, had a thanksgiving day brought about by peculiar 
circumstances. They were threatened with lack of pro- 
vision in the near future, and a boat was sent to Ireland 
for the needed supplies. The ship did not return so soon 
as expected. The long delay led the colony to believe 
that the boat was lost. They now could see only starva- 
tion awaiting them. They appointed a day of fasting. 
This was the 22d of February, 1031, but upon that very 
day appointed for fasting, the boat, laden with provisions, 
reached the colony. That happy event at once changed 
the day from one of fasting to one of feasting and thanks- 
giving. 

You who render yourselves miserable by borrowing 
trouble, can you not learn a lesson from that colony of 
1631? The dark days which you see in the future — the 
far-away fast-day which you have appointed, may be 
changed, when you reach it, to a day of thanksgiving! 

8. Consider, again, that the sum of your joys is far 
greater than that of your sorrows. You will be sur- 
prised, in noting the weather for a few successive weeks, 
at the preponderance of the clear days over the cloudy. 

There is a poetic illustration of this truth — that the 
bright days in life exceed the black — in a recent poem by 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 119 

Mrs. Amelia E. Barr. It is entitled, "The New Year 
Ledger/' and reads : 

I said one day a year ago, 

I wonder, if I truly kept, 
A list of days when life burnt low, 

Of days I smiled, and days I wept — 
If good, or had, would highest mount, 
When I made up the year's account. 

I took a ledger, fair and fine, 
And now, I said, when days are glad, 

I'll write with bright red ink the line ; 
And write with black when they are load, 

So that they'll stand before my sight 

As clear apart as day and night. 

I will not heed the changing skies, 

Nor if it shine, nor if it rain; 
But if there come some sweet surprise, 

Of friendship, love, or honest gain, 
Why, then, it shall be understood, 
That day is written down as good. 

And if to any one I love 

A blessing meets them on the way, 
That will a double pleasure prove, 

So it shall be a happy day ; 
And if some day I've cause to dread, 
Pass harmless by — I'll write it red. 

When hands and brain stand labor's test, 

And I can do the thing I would, 
Those days when I am at my best, 

Shall all be traced as very good. 



120 LIFE AND WRITINGS ' r 

And in "red-letter" too, I'll write, 

Those rare, strong hours, when right is mighi 

When first I meet in some grand ~booh, 

A noble soul that touches mine; 
And with his vision I can look 

Through some "Gate Beautiful" of time ; 
That day such happiness will shed, 
That golden-lined will seem the red. 

And when pure, holy thoughts have power 
To touch my heart and dim my eyes, 

And I, in some diviner hour 

Can hold sweet converse with the skies ; 

Ah, then my soul may safely write, 

"This day hath been most good and bright." 

What do I see on looking back? 

A Red-lined Book before me lies, 
With here and there a thread of black, 

That like a passing shadow flies. 
A shadow, it must be confessed, 
That often rose in my own breast. 

And I have found 'tis good to note 

The blessing that is mine each day; 
For happiness is vainly sought 

In some dim future far away. 
Just try my ledger for a year, 

Then look with grateful wonder back, 
And you will find there is no fear, 

The Bed Days far exceed the Black. 

If you would have the new year to be a happy one, 
God gives you the only condition upon which you can so 
make it : It is by trying to make others happy. 

Illustration. Said a mother to her little son : "You 
said you were going to try to make your little school-mate 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 121 

happy to-day. Did you do it?" "No; he is so spiteful 
that he got angry when I tried to be pleasant toward him ; 
but in trying to make him happy I made myself happy." 
The little boy's experience expresses the unvarying law 
of happiness. It is the daily endeavor to make life a de- 
light to others. Would you have 1886 to be to you a 
h a PPy year? Then rise each morning with a resolution 
to make some one happy that day. It is easily done. 
You have only to help a little, as God hath enabled you, 
in every good work; to put your mite, however small, 
into every Christly charity; to give a left-off garment to 
the child or man who needs it ; a kind word to the sorrow- 
ing; an encouraging expression to the striving. If you 
are young, such a daily endeavor to do good will tell 
happily upon you when you are old ; and if you are old, it 
will send you gently and happily down the stream of time 
to eternity. Look at the result even mathematically 
considered : If you can add just a trifle to some one's hap- 
piness each day, that is three hundred and sixty-five 
days in the course of the year. Now, suppose you live 
even ten years after commencing such a course as this, 
you have made 3,650 persons a little more happy by rea- 
son of that good New Year's resolution. 

Suppose we put this New Year's resolve into the form 
of this simple little poem : 

Speak a shade more kindly 

Than the year before; 
Pray a little oftener; 

Love a little more. 

Cling a little closer 

To the Father's love; 
And life below shall liker grow" 

To the life above. 



122 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

THE WISE PREACHER 



The Difficulty of Securing a Good Pastor, Allegorically 

Illustrated 

[Sermon before the Eastern Indiana Christian Conference at 
Eden Christian Church, near Shideler, Delaware County, Ind., 
Tuesday, September 15 to Friday, 18, 1903.] 

TEXT — "Because the preacher was icise." — Eccl. 
12:9. 

Yes, Solomon was wise, hampered as he was by hu- 
man weakness. Because he was wise he preached to 
instruct; he gave himself to study; he sought to use 
acceptable words — to employ the best forms of speech. 

Every right thing done; every thing well done — by 
a preacher or pastor from Solomon's time to ours, — was 
so done "because the preacher was wise". 

It was so done because he meant wisely, thought 
wisely, acted wisely. But from apostolic times till now, 
the church has carried a crippling weight of foolish 
preachers. Worse than that, such preachers ply their 
folly by sacred authority. The state licenses the vending 
of liquors, and the church too often licenses the slang- 
peddler and pulpit-clown. Why these clerical scourges 
when wisdom cries from school-house and college halls? — 
when her voice echoes from the ages of history, and her 
treasures enrich all the centuries of experience? In our 
age every preacher, every man, may be wise. He may 
not be a linguist, a philosopher, a sage ; but in a practical, 
common-sense way he may be wise. He needs to be wise. 
A foolish, frivolous preacher is a dangerous preacher. 
You may fear a quack in medicine, but all the more a 
quack in the ministry. Yes, a foolish minister — an idle, 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 123 

unthinking preacher, is a dangerous man. His license is 
an official warrant to work mischief — to lower standards 
of reverence and refinement — of lofty Christian character. 
A foolish church may admire him, make much ado about 
him, and even disrupt the membership to retain him. 
Perhaps they succeed, but into the same pit they both 
fall at last. 

"Because the preacher is wise" he is a student — a 
prayerful, persevering student. He is a student of the 
Bible, of other helpful books, of his parish work, of his 
people, of the times, of himself, of the best methods of 
securing usefulness and success. Not to read, think, 
study, observe, and lay hold upon all available helps, is 
stupidity, folly, failure. 

Because the preacher is wise he preaches simply. 
He preaches to be understood. He thinks it no mark of 
learning to talk above the understanding of his people. 
With no condescension to slang, with no sacrifice of 
verbal purity, he can use great simplicity of style. He 
can do this and yet enrich his thought and phraseology 
with freshness, figure, force. The most marked simplic- 
ity is proper if it open to one's understanding the riches 
of the Gospel. If only a wooden key will unlock a treas- 
ury, then it is more useful than a key of gold. 

The effort, however, to draw an audience by slang, 
studied wit, mimicry, amusing story, or by any manner- 
ism that is sensational and eccentric, is distasteful and 
sacrilegious. The wits and wags of the pulpit are of 
short-lived reputation. They are never taken into the 
heart of the people; and, after a generation or two, are 
dropped out of history and biography. The elements 
of grateful memorial and of immortality, inhere only in 
true worth — in those qualities in man that are divine. 
Godliness is an attribute of immortality* Live Godlike 



124 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

— put godliness into every action, — and you shall at last 
live with God. 

Because the preacher is wise he will give due weight 
to personal cleanliness. He will do this for his own 
sake, example's sake, and ministerial consistency's sake. 
Giving heed to Paul, he will "cleanse himself from all 
fllthiness of the flesh". Should he belong to a church 
that believes in the "holy kiss", as do the Dunkards, he 
will not allow defiled lips to make repulsive that sacred 
greeting. He will not, by any poison or unpleasant odor 
on his lips, make sickening to others the single sacred 
cup of communion. He will keep his lips pure to pro- 
nounce the name of God, — pure to sip the emblem of 
Christ's cleansing blood, — pure for the kiss of wife, moth- 
er, or childhood's immaculate cheek. 

A wise preacher will also keep himself mentally clean 
— intellectually chaste and pure. He will indulge no 
indecent thought, and will disdain to cast a lustful look. 
Among women his conduct and speech are above reproach. 
Taught by Paul, he "intreats the elder women as mothers ; 
the younger as sisters, with all purity". In the society 
of ladies he shuns the slightest departure from purity and 
propriety. Neither among men nor women will he tell a 
story that would offend the modesty of wife, sister, or 
mother. The preacher who inclines to excite mirth by 
anecdotes that flavor of immodesty is in mind and imag- 
ination a rake. Watch him, lest with his strong leaning 
to indecency he drag down the innocent to his own level. 
Alas, that any foul mouth or mind should ever have license 
to invade the home or desecrate the pulpit! A man given 
to impure conversation should have no conferential right 
in the home-garden. There his speech may poison the 
mind of innocent children, and his ruthless tread crush 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 125 

the budding hope of stainless maidenhood. The license 
of such a preacher should be revoked. 

"Because the preacher is wise" he preaches his honest 
convictions, and not his honest doubts. Brethren, preach 
your convictions, if you have any, but keep your doubts 
to yourselves. Come into the pulpit with a positive 
Gospel; stay out of it with speculation and uncertainty. 
The habit of publicly pointing out the exceptions that 
some critics take to this or that book, chapter, or verse of 
Bible is pernicious and proves the want of common sense. 
Never give a guest poison in order to prove to him the 
superiority of wholesome food. More will be made sick 
than your medicine will cure. A man once set fire to a 
village shop to show the qualities of his patent fire extin- 
guisher. The flames spread into a conflagration that all 
the patents in the world could not put out. You have 
heard preachers whose sermons did more to weaken men's 
faith than to strengthen it. They started up more foxes 
of doubt than their fancied smartness could run down. 
A sermon should send an audience away more impressed 
with the perfection of God's Word than with the doubts 
of infidels. Foolish is the preacher who feeds his people 
on Sunday with nothing better than a lot of skeptical ob- 
jections scraped up through the week. We should bring 
men into the church that we may strengthen their faith, 
and not that we may make shipwreck of the little they 
already have. Let us open our eyes to the unprofitable- 
ness of preaching what is not the Gospel. If our pulpit 
and our press are to become a power in the land for 
Christ, it will be by attention to what we "believe, and not 
what we doubt. We are glad that our editor has guard- 
ed the Herald pages against free-thinking flings at the 
Bible and the divinity of our Savior. Now let our con- 



126 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

ferences and ordaining committees throw equal watch- 
fulness about our pulpit. 

"Because the preacher is wise" he shrinks not from 
the sacrifices of foreign nor of frontier mission work. 
The preacher that aspires to none but rich and easy home 
parishes, courts effeminacy and failure. He follows the 
Master for gain. He is inspired by the sight of loaves. 
He has caught the smell of fishes. It is through struggle 
that strength comes and souls are won. Every true mis- 
sionary becomes a hero, and deserves a place in the elev- 
enth chapter of Hebrews. Yes, he brings light to the 
benighted by putting his very life-blood into the work. 
Souls are helped out of heathen darkness only by indus- 
try, incessant and assiduous. Mission work in foreign 
fields is the most exacting, exhausting, health-trying and 
life-endangering that heart or brain or body can endure. 
Blessing upon those dear brethren and sisters who sought 
not work that was pleasant, nor shrunk from labors that 
were painful, but answered gladly the far-away cry of the 
perishing. 

"Because the preacher is wise/' in the highest wisdom, 
he jiossesses a spiritual mind. He lives in constant com- 
munion with God. He has spiritual discernment of the 
truth. He preaches out of a personal spiritual experience. 
He knows for himself the things which he affirms. He 
has the life that comprehends life, that responds to life, 
and the experience that answers to experience. Religion 
to him is not a speculation. It is a promise and its 
appropriation. The wise preacher sets before his people, 
not a cold philosophy, but the Bread of Life. To his 
hearers the teachings of Scripture come fresh and new, 
lifting them up to a happier, serener, loftier life. His 
words come to the congregation in the spirit in which the 
Master spake them — in which the Holy Ghost revealed 






SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 127 

them. Thus spoken, they act upon the hearer like Christ's 
disclosure of the woman to herself when awakened mem- 
ory and conscience exclaimed : "Come, see a man that told 
me all that ever I did". That is the preacher who makes 
the Gospel a mirror — a mirror in which the sinner sees 
himself — flees from himself — flees unto Christ. That is 
the preacher who transmutes doctrine into life, and brings 
fellowship for dissension. In the soul of such a preacher 
there is nothing that incites faction. He wastes not his 
life fighting for some favorite tenet. He is set, like Paul, 
for the defense of the Gospel. He fears the evil fruits of 
threadbare controversy — of denominational quarrels that 
excite only the derision of sinners. There are two kinds 
of discourses he never preaches: the sermon that has in 
it nothing hut dogma, and the sermon that has in it noth- 
ing but the most dogmatic denunciation of all dogmas. 

"Because the preacher is wise" he is a hopeful preach- 
er — is optimistic — a believer in the overcoming power and 
final reign of right and truth. He has grown tired of 
pessimistic pulpit scolds. The church is Christ's, and he 
cannot berate it. How can He? He is a child of the 
church. He can trace back to the church every good in- 
fluence that has come into his life. A pulpit pessimist is 
as much out of position morally as he would be physically 
standing on his head. Thus inverted, his brain would be 
dazed, his thoughts confused — his entire view of things 
tangled and distorted. Such a man would be foolish, 
useless, dangerous as a moral teacher and leader. Every 
great religious leader was, or is, an optimist. Moses, 
seeing no hindrance in the sea, crossed over and con- 
quered. Caleb's great faith dwindled giants to pigmies 
and seized the promise. Joshua conquered, reminded by 
every bugle blast and clash of spear that Jehovah was 
captain. The church will conquer. No sham or shirk; 



128 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

no Philistine or Pharisee; no pessimist or partizan can 
stand successfully between narrowness and breadth, dark- 
ness and light, savagery and civilization. Contrast the 
condition of the church in England — in all Europe a cen- 
tury ago — the condition of both the Episcopal church and 
the Non-Conformists — with the same churches of 1903. 
If as a pessimist or a discouraged preacher you will do 
this, and then doubt that Christianity will triumph, your 
incredulity will not be the doubt of the wise, but the croak 
of cowardice and the dirge of despair. 

May a church always secure this wise preacher? — 
this model man, model student, model teacher? No, no! 
He is a parish prize that colleges and training schools 
seldom turn out. But they give us scores of the other 
sort, each of whom thinks himself that model preacher. 
Not scores, you say ! Yes ; you test it. Advertise for a 
preacher. What bundles of letters you now bring from 
the office! The door bell — go, answer it! A messenger 
boy! — you are wanted at the telephone! Such was the 
result of a late published call for a preacher. The church 
had appointed a pastoral committee, and its unhappy 
chairman — a business man — has related to me his experi- 
ence. He said: "Soon after the published notice letters 
began to pour in upon me. At first I thought it was fun, 
but in a few days it took all my time at the office to read 
and answer them. Then when I got home at night anoth- 
er installment of letters had to be gone through. I had 
great numbers of callers, too, at home and at the office, 
and through the telephone, all concerning our vacant pul- 
pit. Friends would ring up my telephone and begin, 
"Have you got a man for your pulpit yet?" "No." 
"Well, I know a capital man, doing well where he is, but 
his wife's health isn't good." I said, "Better send for 
a doctor," and rang off the wire. Then an acquaintance 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 129 

came in. He said he had an old classmate who was as 
eloquent as Apollos and mighty as Paul, but he was too 
deep for his audience, and wanted to get a more intelligent 
congregation. I told him to send his classmate to Bos- 
ton, and went out to lunch. But three strangers follow- 
ed me. They sat down by me at the table and introduced 
themselves. Each had a different man, and a volume of 
history about his good qualities, and his reasons for want- 
ing a change. One wanted to do more studying, and I 
advised that he be sent back to the seminary. Another 
had too large a family to keep on his present salary, and 
I recommended that he give some of his children away, 
The other was — well, a little too outspoken for his people 
on the labor question, and I suggested that he go into 
politics. 

It was four o'clock before I got back from my lunch 
to the office, and I slipped in at the back door. But the 
clerk said that two or three persons had been ringing me 
up on the telephone, — that they wanted a word with me 
about a minister or something, and that there were two 
men and three women waiting in the other room to see me. 
I told the clerk that I wished the lightning would strike 
somebody. 

Then I went into the other room to see what my call- 
ers wanted. Now I have always thought it a Christian 
duty to be polite and nice. But when one of the ladies 
said in a piping voice: "I have a friend who I think 
would be an excellent man for your pul — ", I didn't wait 
to hear any more, but broke for the back door and got 
home as quick as I could. By this time I had a raging 
headache, but my wife said that my old friend Blank was 
waiting in the parlor to see me ; that he had brought with 
him a former pastor, and she was sure I would like him ; 
"he had such a pleasing manner, patted the children on 



130 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

the head, and said the baby was pretty, and he would cer- 
tainly take with the parents, and perhaps with the young 
people too." 

I got through with my friend Blank and his former 
pastor long after the supper hour, and then went straight 
to bed, with the solemn injunction to my family that I was 
too sick to see anybody. But pretty soon my oldest boy 
came up and said that a gentleman wanted very much to 
see me; that he understood that our church — "Shut that 
door and get out of here," I shouted. 

Well, I dozed off to sleep, while the doorbell was 
ringing. I had a bad night of it. I dreamed all the 
time of our vacant pulpit — of ministers, and their friends 
and my friends. I could see long lines of them coming 
with big bundles of letters and recommendations. Then 
it seemed that our pulpit was full of candidates, all there 
at once, some standing on the shoulders of others, and all 
preaching, some about Moses, some about Melchisedek, 
some about Armageddon, some about the lynching of 
negroes, and the race problem ; others on "The New Wo- 
man ;" others on the text ; "Let Her Drive" ; and another, 
who was opposed to education, on the text: "The Ass 
Spake Unto Balaam", — and why can't we! 

Well, our people were getting all divided up. They 
had heard all sorts of talent, and all manner of pulpit 
manners. They had heard all kinds of candidates and 
had got into their heads all sorts of standards. One 
wanted a short man, another a tall man; another an old 
man, another a young man ; one a conservative man ; an- 
other a progressive man; some wanted a married man, 
and several young ladies a single man; one wanted a man 
familiar with economic questions, and a ready talker 
about the sciences; another ventured to suggest a man 
who understood the Bible. One wanted a man who could 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 131 

quote Greek ; another said he had grown hungry for good 
English; a sister who had come from the Quakers objected 
to a mustache ; another said that her dear pastor in New 
Bedford always wore burnsides. One brother declared 
he would subscribe nothing to a man that says "Aw-men" ; 
another declared he wouldn't give a cent to one that says 
"A-men". But all agreed that they wanted a good man, 
a perfect man, an angel, and all were getting out with the 
pastoral committee because it didn't find him. 

Waking from my dream, I got up feeling bad enough ; 
but I made a vow to be as good as I could until the next 
church-meeting, and then resign my place on the commit- 
tee. But before breakfast the doorbell rang, and I an- 
swered it myself. There stood a man with a ministerial 

look all over his face. He said he understood ! I 

didn't wait to hear any more. I shot out at the back 
door, ran round the house, and climbed in through my 
bedroom window. Wife, hearing my movements, came 
quietly in. 

"Wife/ 5 said I, "lay me out a change of linen, I'm 
going to the Eastern Indiana Conference, at Eden Church, 
near Shideler, in Delaware County." "Why, husband, 
you don't mean, do you, to leave this applicant for our 
vacant pulpit on my hands !" "I do — I shall board the 
next train, take the traction at Muncie, and stop at Sta- 
tion 21, at the Eden Church. It's a country church, and 
seems a little out of the way for a tig conference, but they 
say the people there have hearts as big as the conference 
and will care gladly for all that come." "But why are 
you going to the conference?" "Why, wife, after all 
these applications for our pulpit, by letter, all these solici- 
tations by candidates and their friends, I want to see some 
of the preachers for myself, and hear for myself about 
their success, and their good conference record for study, 



132 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

industry, good example, taking the collections, encourag- 
ing our literature, and co-operating with our church at 
large. I want to see if our Eastern Indiana Conference 
has any available preachers that have learned wisdom in 
pastoral work; who can hold, instruct and build up a 
church through consecutive years; who can preach the 
Bible oftener than they do Emerson or Aristotle; who can 
preach repentance as earnestly as they do sociology, high- 
er criticism, the trust problem, and what stand the Pres- 
ident should take on strikes, and the labor question." 

Well, my discouraged brother of that pastoral com- 
mittee, you did well to come to this conference. Take 
courage. This conference can supply your church with 
the desired pastor. They have here preachers that are 
wise, — preachers that can feed and lead their flocks, — and 
every year, under heaven's help, this conference, aided by 
our schools and colleges, is equipping more laborers to 
reap the now ripe harvest. We are gathering in the 
grain, and the story of every garnered sheaf is told in this 
simple text : ''Because the preacher was wise". 

O O O 

THE DOVE 

TEXT — And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up 
straighticay out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were 
opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending 
like a dove, and lighting upon him: — Matt. 3 : 16. 

The Holy Spirit here assumes the form of a dove. 
There is doubtless great significance in the use of this 
symbol. There is good reason why the form assumed by 
the Holy Spirit was not that of any bird of prey, as the 
hawk or the raven, but of a dove. 






SER M ON S ADDRESSES ESSAYS 133 

In the paintings of the old masters, the dove fre- 
quently appears as an emblem. 

First, it is used as an emblem of the Holy Spirit. In 
that sense, it is placed near certain saints who are sup- 
posed to be inspired. It is also a symbol of purity, and 
as such it is introduced into pictures of female saints, 
and especially the pictures of Mary and the infant Jesus. 

Again, the dove is used as an emblem of the human 
soul. In this sense a dove is seen issuing from the lips 
of dying martyrs. 

In the Word of God the dove is often used as an em- 
blem. That the dove mentioned in Scripture is the pig- 
eon, or turtle-dove, is evident from descriptions of ancient 
authors, and from representations handed down to us by 
the chisel of the sculptor. 

1. The dove is used as a symbol of spiritual aspira- 
tion. The Psalmist says : "Oh, that I had wings like 
a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest." 

The dove here alluded to was distinguished for the 
rapidity of its flight, flying at the rate of about a mile a 
minute. Have ive any longing for this upward flight, 
these higher spiritual experiences, or are we satisfied with 
groveling on the ground? — no wings to our aspirations? 
— no plumage of soul! 

2. The dove is used as an emblem of the rapid in- 
crease of the church, or revival success. 

When Isaiah, in prophetic vision, beholds the multi- 
tudes flocking to the house of God, he exclaims : "Who are 
these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to the windows?" 
Thus did the people come to Christ under the preaching of 
Wesley, Edwards, Finney, Moody. It is stated that Mr. 
Spurgeon expects a certain number of converts every 
month. His church come out to all the services, work 
to that end, and realize it. Brethren, we need to pray 



134 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

and work for a revival in which sinners shall fly to the 
Savior "as doves to their windows." 

The dove is an emblem of the search of the human 
soul after rest. 

At the end of the forty days of the deluge, Noah 
opened the window of the Ark, and sent forth a dove to 
ascertain if the waters were abated from the face of the 
earth. The dove wandered on, but found no rest, no 
place where it could alight, for the waters were yet on 
the face of the whole earth. Weary with its search for 
a resting place, it returns exhausted to the ark. There, 
and there only, could it find rest. How typical is this 
of the human soul, seeking rest in this world! Christ 
is the ark of our salvation, and only He can give rest to 
the wandering, weary, disappointed soul. Honor, office, 
fame, cannot give that rest. You have perhaps noticed 
the difference of expression in two of the most popular 
portraits of Abraham Lincoln. One has freshness of 
face, clearness and mildness of eye. It was taken just 
after his inauguration. The other is haggard and care- 
worn in expression. This was taken but a few months 
before his assassination. The honors of office could not 
counteract the care that wore upon his soul, and wrote 
lines of sadness over his manly face. 

4. The dove is an emblem of love and fidelity. 

Naturalists tell us that when a dove has selected its 
mate, the alliance continues till one or the other of them 
dies. Because of the affection which the dove exhibited 
for its mate, heathen nations dedicated that bird to the 
goddess of love. Doves were cultivated and protected 
by law. In the paintings and sculptures of the old 
masters, Venus, the goddess of love, is represented as at- 
tended, or drawn in a car, by doves. Thus, is the dove 
an emblem of love, tenderness, affection, fidelity. 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 135 

Would that ice had more of this dove-like spirit. 
Says Paul : "Though I speak with the tongues of men and 
of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding 
brass and a tinkling cymbal." You have said that if 
you only had the eloquence of Beecher or Gladstone how 
you would speak for Jesus and espouse the cause of the 
oppressed. But Paul says that though we have an an- 
gers enrapturing eloquence, and have not love, it avails 
nothing. We are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 
We have all heard men of this kind. There was no love 
for God nor man in their heart, but they talked fluently. 
Paul says that that sort of talk, with no corresponding 
action, is but a tinkling cymbal. The clanging cymbal in 
a band of music has no musical effect when the other 
instruments are not playing. Sounding alone, it is only 
noise. Such, says Paul, is the most eloquent man on 
earth, if he is devoid of love — Noise, noise, — simply that, 
and nothing more ! 

The dove is an emblem of peaceableness. 

Says the Savior : "Be ye therefore as wise as serpents 
and as harmless as doves." The eagle, the hawk, the vul- 
ture, kill and devour other birds. Not so the dove. It 
is armed with neither beak nor talons. Injuring no 
one, it pursues its quiet w r ay. Its highest security is in 
its amiable qualities. Live like that, says Christ. How 
little of this dove-like spirit is in the world! Instead 
of being doves we are hawks, vultures, thrusting our ta- 
lons into men's good name, or heartlessly devouring their 
morsel of happiness. Too much is this so in social life, 
in business life, in professional life — even in national life. 
Christian Europe, whose kings and emperors in the coro- 
nation ceremony pray to the Prince of Peace, has to-day 
more than ten million soldiers, ready at a moment's notice 



136 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

to butcher each other! What are their national em- 
blems ? 

England has the lion; Belgium three lions; Sweden 
two lions; Norway a lion wielding a ponderous axe; 
Prussia an eagle and two gladiators; Holland a lion 
wielding a dagger; the United States an eagle with 
arrows in its talons. We search in vain for the dove 
among the national emblems of the world. 

In churches, in neighborhoods, in families, there is 
often more of the hawk, and the vulture, than of the dove. 
Some people seem never so happy as when in a quarrel — 
never so happy as when they are miserable ! They stir 
up strife wherever they go. 

There is a woman in Philadelphia of whom it is said 
that no sooner does she enter the zoological gardens than 
every animal begins to growl, or snarl, and show signs of 
fight. The very sight of her arouses all the fighting pro- 
pensities of the caged lions, tigers and bears. There are 
people who cannot come into a family, a church, a neigh- 
borhood, without arousing the fighting propensities of 
every one with whom they come in contact. Wherever 
they go there is a quarrel. How much better, how much 
more beautiful, to study the things that make for peace, — 
to cultivate the dove-like spirit. 

6. Another characteristic of the dove is its attach- 
ment for home. 

It is on this fact that the system of carrier pigeons 
is based. When one of the ancients left home, he took 
with him one or more of these birds. When, say fifty 
miles from home, he desired to write to his family, he 
attached his message to one of these birds and set it free. 
No sooner does it gain its liberty than it rises to a great 
height, circles round for a moment to determine the direc- 
tion it is to go, and then, like an arrow, it flies with un- 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 137 

erring accuracy over the fifty miles, straight to 
its home. When a hundred miles from home an- 
other bird is put on wing to bear another message 
home. An historian tells us that at the siege of Jeru- 
salem that Christians intercepted a letter tied to the legs 
of a dove, in which letter the Persian emperor promised 
assistance to the beseiged. 

These birds played an important part in the siege of 
Paris. Their training is a branch of the military service 
in France. Prizes are given to the best trainers of car- 
rier pigeons in the Department of the Seine. The French 
government has now (1887) in its possession one of these 
birds that took part in the siege of Paris. It is regarded 
as a hero and a patriot. In 1870 this dove was taken up 
in a Paris balloon, and was captured by the Prussians. 
He was sent as a present to a princess of Prussia. He 
soon afterward effected his escape and made his way 
directly back to Paris. 

Attachment for home is, then, one of the leading char- 
acteristics of the dove. 

God is the home of the soul. Though we may have 
wandered far from Him, and become entangled in world- 
liness, let us resolve this day to break away from our cap- 
tivity, and, like the dove on silvery pinions, return unto 
our God. 

"Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, 
With all thy quick'ning power. 
Kindle a flame of sacred love 
In these cold hearts of ours." 



138 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

THE MAGNIFIED WORD 

(Preached at union service, at M. E. Church, Frank- 
lin, Ohio, Sunday night, May 1, 1887.) 

TEXT — "For thou hast magnified thy icords above 
all thy icorks" — Psalm 108: 2. 

This Bible is the word of God. Though a small book, 
comparatively, — far smaller than many human volumes, — 
though a child can span it, and lift it, it is the word of 
God. The words of God's first and final written revela- 
tion to man, are thus couched in so small a compass. 
Might lies not in magnitude, nor power in expansion. 
With thumb and finger you can clasp your precious pocket 
Bible — perhaps your mother's gift — and this is the word 
of God. Around us, reaching to infinite distances, are 
the works of God. But the Author of these words has 
magnified them above all His works. In a word, a whis- 
per, an accent, there is singular power, — power, it may 
be of wisdom, of comfort, of cheer, of renewed life. This 
power lies not in loudness, nor in lengthy speech. In 
Sinai's thunder there was death; but Christ's three words: 
"Lazarus come forth," unlocked the grave, and pierced 
the tomb with the omnipotent power of life. 

The words of man's lips are greater than all his hand 
creates. The words of Longfellow, or Whittier, or Pres- 
cott are greater than the manufactured paper upon which 
they were written. The paper of these publications may 
be calendared and costly; the binding beautiful; but the 
spirit, genius, power of the authors speak, glow, sing, 
whisper, thunder in their icords. 

Great are sun, moon, stars, but the word that spake 
them into existence, is greater. Great are the works of 
God as seen in the orbs above us, and in this earth now 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 139 

beautiful in the robes of springtime; but, says the text: 
"Thou hast magnified thy words above all thy works" 

1. God has magnified His Word in the beauty of its 
language. 

Benjamin Franklin, holding this book in his hand, 
stood before an infidel club in Paris, and read to them 
selections from both the Old and the New Testaments. 
Unacquainted with the very Book they rejected, they ex- 
claimed : "How exquisitely beautiful ! Why ! from- what 
volume have you read ?" Franklin replied : "The volume 
from which I have read is the Bible." 

These self-conceited infidels knew about as much of 
the Bible as the skeptical Cambridge student, w T ho was 
asked by a Christian professor to relate any scriptural 
incident whatever, that might at the moment occur to his 
memory. He answered : "The only one that comes to my 
recollection is that of Peter cutting off the ear of the 
prophet Malachi" He had some faint recollection of 
Malchus, the high priest's servant, whose ear Peter cut off 
with a sword. 

God being the author of the human mind and human 
speech, how easily might his own thought and his own 
language transcend, in richness and radiance, the best 
and most beautiful utterance of his creatures! 

Judged as a mere literary production, what can sur- 
pass such expressions as: "Weeping may endure for a 
night, but joy cometh in the morning." Or, as Isaiah, 
foreseeing the final triumph of the Messiah's kingdom, 
calls upon hills and mountains, and Lebanon's stately 
cedars to break forth into one mighty oratorio of song. 

Prof. Mathews, one of the ablest essayists in Amer- 
ica, recommends that public speakers and writers study 
the Bible as a help to the enriching of their vocabulary, 
and the formation of a chaste and forcible style. He 



140 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

mentions the names of several eminent attorneys and 
statesmen whose marvelous command of choice and 
charming forms of speech, was, in part, the result of a 
careful reading and study of God's Word. 

2. God has magnified His Word, (2d) in its adapta- 
tion to all mankind in all ages. 

In one of the immense libraries of Europe there is 
pointed out to the traveler a large number of select tod 
special volumes which, at one time, were considered stand- 
ards on the several subjects on which they treat. Men 
of science and literature once crossed continents and seas 
to consult these authorities. 

But the world has long since moved on beyond the 
wisdom and learning of those volumes. They are still 
upon the shelves, but obsolete, unread, worthless. They 
were adapted to only a few persons in a particular period 
of the world's history. The Bible is adapted to all people 
and to all times. 

This adaptation of the written word is partly due to 
the varietj T in its composition, — poetry and prose ; the pre- 
ceptive, the promissory, the prophetic ; history, genealogy, 
chronology, narrative, — yes, mainly narrative. Thus 
God's character, His truth, His will and ways towards 
man, are seen and studied from various standpoints. 

When the artist wished to make a portrait of Shakes- 
peare he had the death-mask removed from the face. He 
then took twenty or thirty daguerreotypes from every 
possible angle of vision. 

So the Bible shows us Christ from every possible an- 
gle of vision. Now we see Him as the ancient prophets 
draw the distant, tremulous outline of the man of sorrows. 
In the same olden pages of inspiration we behold Him, as 
Israel's bard chants, in melodious cadence, the ultimate 
triumphs of Messiah's kingdom. In the New Testament 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 141 

we see Him as teacher and friend; brother, Savior, tri- 
umphant Redeemer, ever-living intercessor. We see Him 
going about and doing good everywhere, to everybody. He 
makes the rocking boat His pulpit, and teaches the multi- 
tude on the shore. We see Him on the grassy mountain- 
side feeding the hungry. We behold Him on the stormy 
sea with power in His mere word over wind and wave. 
From might and majesty He descends to tenderness, and 
consents to be touched by the penitent Mary ; He is moved 
by pity, and restores the lame and blind. We see Him 
entering into the feeling of a mother's heart, and He heals 
the daughter of the Syrophenician woman, arrests the 
funeral processions and restores to a broken-hearted 
mother her dead and only son. We see Him in beautiful 
appreciation of a mother's spiritual solicitude for her 
children as He takes the little ones into His arms and 
blesses them. 

On another occasion the people of Capernaum im- 
proved the cool of the evening by bringing all their sick, 
of every disease, rich and poor, great and small, to Him 
whose pity and pow r er were equal to all this pain, and all 
this honest, artless appeal. So the all-healing Physician 
walked amid the stretchers, and cots, and couches and 
with a word, a look, a touch, brought healing and turned 
all this scene of dolor and dejection into a grand evening, 
open-air meeting of gratitude and rejoicing! 

Inspired by this wondrous scene, some one has 
written : 

"At ev'ning, when the sun was set, 

The sick, O Lord, around thee lay ; 
Oh, in what divers pains they met — 

Oh, with what joy they went away! 



142 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

"Once more 'tis eventide, and we. 

Oppressed with various ills, draw near; 

What if thy form we cannot see? 
We know and feel that thou art here. 

"Oh, Savior, Christ! our woes dispel ; 

For some are siek, and some are sad. 
And some have never loved thee well. 

And some have lost — the love they Iwd. 

"Thy touch has still its ancient power; 

Xo word from thee — can fruitless fall 
Hear in this solemn, evening hour, 

And in thy mercy heal us all." 

Farther on, we behold Jesus on the cross. Agony 
drives great drops of blood to the surface. But pain can- 
not blunt His pity. With lips taking on the pallor of 
death, He prays forgiveness for His murderers. 

Looking again, we see this Jesus alive from the dead, 
loving with undiminished tenderness His sorrowing dis- 
ciples. Forty days pass, and we see our Lord ascending 
to glory to His former home in the skies, and to the media- 
torial throne. Now, it is the Bible that becomes the 
camera of the divine artist to show us Jesus from all those 
angles of vision that present His "matchless worth/' that 
"show His glories forth/' that ravish our souls by a vision 
of "all the forms of love He wears." 

Another feature of the Bible which adapts it to all 
classes, and in which God has highly magnified His word, 
is this: — Much of the Book is in the form of narrative, 
or story. 

A prominent journalist says: "A majority of all 
readers are most interested in what happens to persons. 
When the daily or weekly paper is taken up to be read, 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS L43 

that department called 'Personal' will usually be pur- 
sued with more interest than those columns that tell of 
legislative, commercial, state, national and international 
affairs." 

Now, the Bible is three-fourths narrative. It tells 
what happened to persons — of the creation and fall ; how 
Eve and Adam sinned, and were driven from the garden ; 
how Abel and Cain made offerings to God; how Abel's 
offering was accepted and Cain's rejected ; how Cain slew 
his brother, and was rebuked of God and marked for life. 
The Word also tells of Noah, Abraham, Lot, Sarah, Isaac, 
Rebecca; Jacob, Eachael, Moses, Joshua, Saul, Samuel, 
Solomon, David, Daniel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Yes, of 
Joseph, Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Jesus, the disciples, 
the apostles, the memorable women of holy writ, John, 
banished, dwelling on Patmos, and shown visions of 
things that shall shortly come to pass. 

It is this larger part of the Bible that gives it interest 
to the adult reader, and makes the story of God's dealings 
with men one of interest, instruction, and spiritual, 
converting power even to children. 

4. God has magnified His Word by stamping upon 
it the impress of His workmanship. 

In literature, in art, in mechanics, every production 
is marked with the individuality, even the nationality of 
its author. No man's thought or manual skill can rise 
above his talent, taste, culture, genius. That which is 
human cannot rise above the human. Only that which 
is divine can bear the stamp and display the wonders of 
divinity. 

Daniel Webster, a master critic in language and 
thought, said on his dying bed : "The sermon on the mount 
cannot be a merely human production. The thought, the 



144 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

wisdom, the impress of God are in those masterly and 
matchless sentences." 

This illustrious statesman had mastered the philoso- 
phy and laws of language and thought. Senates and 
philologic critics marveled at his genius. His memor- 
able address at the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument 
was a literary triumph equal to the military victory that 
took place when bayonets gleamed along the crest of that 
historic hill, and British valor was unequal to the bravery 
and patriotism of the colonial troops. Yes, this was the 
great master of language and thought that said of the 
sermon on the mount : "Here is a production that towers 
above all that ever came from human tongue or pen" 

The Persians had a novel method granting a copy- 
right. The law required that the poet insert his name in 
the last stanza, and this was to be done in such a way as 
not to break or mar the melody of the verse. This re- 
quired much skill, but it marked the poem as the author's 
own. 

You may know that this book is the word of God, for 
into its very texture is inwrought the name and attributes 
of God, in characters as vivid as those which flash from 
the starry firmament, or are read in the mountain ranges 
which none but an omnipotent hand could have lifted up. 

5. God has magnified His Word in the testimony of 
travel and discovery. 

In the sacred pages we read : "As the mountains are 
round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about His 
people." 

Now, suppose that when a traveler, Bible in hand, 
goes to Jerusalem, he should find that there are no moun- 
tains round about Jerusalem. In that event the Bible 
would fall to the ground as false in its record and prepos- 
terous in its claims. But the mountains are there as 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 145 

hoary, perpetual, unimpeachable witnesses. There will 
they ever stand in unvarying testimony. Hostile and 
now perished armies have crossed them ; the feet of march- 
ing, conquering soldiers have ascended their rocky sides, 
charged over their crest, and walked down at last into a 
darker valley than Hinnom or Gihon. But there still 
stand the mountains, the symbol of that divine bulwark 
and defense that has never failed God's people, and has 
never crumbled from about his spiritual Zion. 

Nay, more, all the hills and valleys, and seas, and 
rivers and brooks of the Bible, just as the sacred narra- 
tive locates them, are still there to speak. Their testi- 
mony is against doubt, against infidelity, against all un- 
godliness and defiance of history, reason, testimony, truth. 
All these voices of nature speak ; all these sacred hillsides, 
peaks, valleys, rivers, and yet running brooks, lift up 
their warning voice; nay, speak in pitying plea, asking 
the skeptic: "Why will you doubt — why will you die?" 

The Bible says that as a punishment Nebuchadnezzar 
was for seven years like a beast upon the earth, and ate 
grass. 

Men have ridiculed this account, but there has now 
come to light some circumstantial evidence corroborative 
of the Bible account. The records made by Nebuchad- 
nezzar himself of his own reign, have been discovered. In 
these records he first gives an account of the magnificent 
palaces, the hanging gardens, and the walls of Babylon. 
Then he suddenly says: "And how I took no pleasure in 
walking or riding. I took no pleasure in anything for 

a term of years." And then the records go on with 

what he did afterwards. What was he doing during 
"that term of years" in which he took no pleasure in any- 
thing? The Bible says that he was eating grass like an 
ox; that is, that he was insane, and imagined himself a 



146 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

beast. Now, the above quotation is believed by learned 
scholars as being the delicate way in which he refers to 
his singular punishment. 

How true it is that all modern Biblical research and 
discovery is directly corroborative of the truthfulness — 
even the exactness — of all Bible statements. In this way 
also is the word of God magnified above all his works. 

6. Again : This Book which God has magnified above 
all His works, is not going to fall from the high position 
which God has assigned it. 

Jesus says: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
my ivords shall not pass away." Matt. 24 : 34. They 
shall never be added to; they shall never be diminished 
by so much as the crossing of a t or the dotting of an i. 
The sun, in its stupendous diameter, shall be blotted out, 
but not a tiny dot, or jot, or period, — not the minutest 
mark of punctuation that gives point to meaning, pathos 
to love, or power to teaching, — not a jot or tittle of this 
Book shall ever pass away. The great sun, visible to 
oldest and dimmest vision, shall be no more, but the tiny 
marks that only modify meaning in this volume — so small 
that age puts on its spectacles to discern them — shall 
outlast all material magnitude and mightiness. 

Such a book can never fall from the lofty position as- 
signed it by the divine author in the moral universe. 

It is related of President Lincoln, that when a young 
man, he stopped over night at the house of a friend. 
About midnight the neighbors awoke him, and in great 
alarm told him to go and look out at the window, that the 
stars were falling and the world was coming to an end. 
Young Lincoln went to the window, looked up beyond the 
shower of falling meteors, to the firmament, and there 
were the fixed stars as undisturbed as when Jacob beheld 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 147 

them in the midnight at Bethel. "Wait till they fall," 
said Lincoln, and went back to bed. 

Some human speculations, some Christless theories of 
religion, of men's relation to God and eternity, may fall, 
must fall, but be not alarmed. The eternal truths of the 
Bible are undisturbed. "Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away." What God 
has made great; what God has magnified, can never dimin- 
ish. Combine the diameters of all suns, systems, worlds, 
material and outward things, and above all these visible 
works of God's hand, He hath magnified His Word. 

In every way, then, the Bible is a most wonderful 
book. The impress of divinity is on all its pages. 
Every event, as shown by its own light, is linked to God. 
Its every doctrine tends to glorify Him ; every precept to 
bless His creatures. There is no trace of flattery of the 
readers, nor of vanity in the writers. There is no effort 
to give force to any fact by false coloring, nor to explain 
any circumstance that seems inconsistent. The writers 
of this Book all wrote as those that felt they were the 
amanuenses of God, — the sworn witnesses of the truth. 
They concealed nothing from fear — palliated nothing 
through shame. These pages tell us, too, how the very 
murderers of Christ confessed Him divine. And since 
the day of His false accusation and crucifixion other 
wicked and worldly-wise men have borne witness to the 
wonders of this holy Book, and to the divinity and majes- 
ty of our Lord's character. Infidels, from Julian, and 
Porphyry to Paine and Rousseau, have made confession of 
the fact that the Bible is, indeed, the magnified, wonder- 
ful word of God. 

God has also magnified His word in its late wide and 
rapid dissemination. Previous to 1804 there was not a 
society in existence whose object was the distribution of 



148 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

the Bible. These societies are now found, not only in 
many parts of Christendom, but in places which in 1804 
were not evangelized. Then the Bible was accessible to 
comparatively few ; now it is translated into all the lead- 
ing tongues of the nations. The church has given the 
Word of God to the olden lands of Palestine, Asia Minor, 
Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia ; to the different national- 
ities of India; to the inhabitants of Burmah and Siam; 
to the myriads of China and Africa. More recently the 
Word has been translated into Japanese, and the teeming 
population of Japan are ripe to receive it. It now seems 
that the whole world will soon be able to have the Gospel 
of the Son of God. Free Protestant states are found in 
both hemispheres; in every grand division of the globe, 
and Christian kingdoms have arisen in regions not long 
since wholly pagan. Our Bible societies have been 
largely the instruments through which God has thus mag- 
nified His Word. Encourage them, contribute to them ; 
speak words in their behalf; welcome their workers, and 
pray for their success. Ask, What would our nation 
be without the Bible? and what could give peace to the 
dying or hope for the dead, were the light and promise of 
this inspired, divine, magnified Word withdrawn from 
the world, from our country, our community, our homes, 
ourselves! Well, then, may we join with the Psalmist 
in his prayer: "Order my footsteps in thy Word," and 
truthfully may we exclaim : "Thou hast magnified thy 
words above all thy works" 



SERMONS— ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 149 

JACOB 

(Franklin, October 17, 1886.) 

TEXT — "Fear not, thou worm Jacob; * * * I will 
help thee, saith the Lord/' — Isaiah 41: 14. 

The unfolding life of Jacob was characterized by 
singular contrasts. His life was a paradox. It was full 
of contradictions and violent alternations. The -first 
glimpse you get of him exhibits him in a phase of little- 
ness and meanness. You lift your eyes a few seconds, and 
you see him again the favored one of God, with wonderful 
visions of God's glory, and wonderful experiences of com- 
munion with him. Following him a few steps farther, 
you find him plying deceit and practicing meanness. A 
later look reveals him wrestling with angels, and camping 
with God's host about him. 

A Jew, Jacob was crafty and overreaching ; but at the 
same time he was filled with lofty aspirations, — was a 
prince in prayer, owned and loved of God. 

There are a good many Jacobs in the world to-day — 
men who are singular contradictions of great spirituality 
and greater meanness. We have these Jacobs in our 
churches, casting constant shame upon their profession. 
In business they seem the very sum of all duplicity; in 
the forms of worship they carry the air of consecration. 
Such characters are dual in their nature. With one life 
they are plying their deceit and sin; with the other they 
are carrying the form of a high profession. One hand 
is reached to God; the other is feeling for lucre. One 
eye looks reverently to heaven; the other constantly and 
keenly toward the world. This is our modern Jacob. We 
have him in the church, just as Judaism had him in the 
tent and the tabernacle. 



150 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

What shall we do with these Jacobs? How are we 
going to rate theni? Do they belong in truth to the 
number of Christ's redeemed; or are they hypocrites, de- 
ceptive, inconsistent by choice? 

As to their evil influence, there is no question. The 
inconsistencies of such members of the church are a hin- 
drance to the church's progress. The world sneeringly 
says : "We are better than they. Don't ask tis to join the 
church while it retains in its membership such men as 
these!" 

It is in this way that these inconsistent members are 
a harm and a stumbling-block. Do you wonder that we 
ask ourselves the question : "How is it that such profes- 
sion of faith and inconsistency of life can exist together? 
How is it that there can be true heart-knowledge of 
Christ, and great sins, or foibles — whatever you may term 
them — side by side in the same heart?" 

Now, the first thing I want you to notice, is that 
there are just such people in the world — whose meaning 
is sincere, but whose tccaknesscs are alarming, — whose 
faith is a reality, but whose inconsistencies are extreme. 

This dual life — (these strange contradictions of faith 
and practice), — is a fact which we cannot force aside. It 
is a fact which the church must face, — a moral weakness 
which can be better met and removed under the religion 
of the Messiah than that of the Patriarchs or of Moses. 

We rarely take into account differences of individual- 
ity. There are some great-hearted, impulsive people to- 
day who are always making mistakes, always saying and 
doing things they are sorry for. These persons can un- 
derstand Jacob precisely ; but those of calm and peaceful 
temperament — of well-poised impulses — can ill interpret 
such a character. 

Look at the characters that come before us in this 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 151 

connection. There was Isaac, one of our quiet, noble 
men, entirely domestic — loving peace — satisfied only in 
tranquility. We can hardly imagine his ever having 
spoken a cross word. His individuality was like a 
dreamy, summer afternoon — quiet, peaceful, sunny. 
Isaac could not understand Jacob any more than a gentle 
peaceful breeze can understand the blast or the cyclone. 
Isaac and Jacob were of diverse individuality. Isaac 
was never inconsistent. Perhaps his neighbors never 
saw anything in him to be condemned. But Jacob's 
soul was like a charged thunder cloud, sure sooner or 
later to break forth into startling contrarieties. 

It is just so to-day. The Isaacs can never under- 
stand the Jacobs. 

And there was Esau. Of his cranium we have no 
phrenologic chart. It was probably small, and bullet- 
shaped. His heart was probably large and warm. His 
friendship was perhaps strong, simple, unsuspecting. He 
was fond of hunting — of out-door life and sports. Had 
he lived to-day he would have played base-ball, ridden a 
bicycle, attended the races, kept his mother in painful 
anxiety, and would have had no piety to boast of. The 
trouble with Esau was, he was thoughtless, careless of 
serious things, more bent on enjoying the present than 
anything else, without any deep undertone of plan or 
purpose in life. Of course Esau could not understand 
Jacob. Jacob's temptations and individuality were en- 
tirely different. Now, is there not enough warning in 
this picture to cry a stop to persons who are always crit- 
icising other people's faults? What do we know of their 
individuality? Their faults may not be as bad as ours! 
The worst faults are not always those which are most 
conspicuous. The sin which no one but God can see, may 
be immeasurably worse than some inconsistency open to 



152 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

every gaze. There sits a man who prides himself on his 
honorable, upright, consistent life. Note his physiog- 
nomy. He is thin-lipped and stern of feature. When 
asked to give to some important and worthy cause, the 
thin lips quietly refuse; and when you look more closely 
into his life, you find he is hard and stern in his dealings 
ivith his -fellow-men. 

Over against this picture let me paint another, — that 
of a man of diverse individuality. He is warm of heart 
and noble of nature. But with all this he has a temper 
that is sometimes ungovernable; and an appetite for in- 
toxicants that sometimes leads him into great sin and 
degradation. Now our thin-lipped, consistent, self-con- 
trolled man with his narrow, sordid nature, looks with 
disdain upon this Jacob so often at the mercy of constitu- 
tional infirmity. Nevertheless, may not the principal 
difference be simply this, that the sins of the one are more 
public and conspicuous than those of the other? And 
may it not be that the man with the great, large, noble 
nature, stained as it is with sin, is better in the sight of 
heaven than he of Pharisaic respectability, but with a 
selfishness and littleness of soul almost beneath contempt? 

My friends, we are all beset with mortifying infirm- 
ities. Even David and Peter were like Jacob in many 
ways. They, too, had great virtues and great vices. 
They, too, seemed at one period of their life to be para- 
doxes, standing firm and high; but at another time lying 
prostrate and low. 

Jacob's soul was on the one side filled with the 
sublimest hopes of the nation which was to spring from 
him, and on the other side with strange craftiness and 
cunning. Esau was the very antipodes of this character. 
He despised his birthright. He cared nothing for God's 
promise about the chosen race and the promised land. 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 153 

He was free, and frank, and generous, but unsusceptible 
to great religious emotion. Jacob, on the other hand, 
though crafty and keenly selfish, took God at His word. 
He believed in the promise. He had a faith to which 
Esau was a stranger — a faith which in this especial case 
was all things. Believing God, he coveted the birthright 
and the blessing, that all this heritage of promise and 
glory might go to his own descendants. Inconsistent 
as it must seem, it was his high appreciation of God's 
promise that caused him to covet this birthright, and 
made him crafty to secure it. Joined, however, to his 
vices were great virtues, but the crudeness of his moral 
perceptions allowed him to employ vicious means to a 
virtuous end. 

Esau, on the other hand, was light-hearted and careless, 
— a hunter who cared more for the chase than for ances- 
tral relations to a mighty people. He could not, there- 
fore, be a proper man to be the father of God's chosen 
people. But Jacob's faith made him that man. True, 
the cunning and the meanness were there, but a great- 
hearted faith was to be the chief factor in a far-reaching 
patriarchal relation. Because of men's weakness God 
has never shown unwillingness to accept and wisely use 
their strength. Supreme wisdom and power are superior 
to human foibles, and enable God to use imperfect men 
for wise and humane ends. So did He with Noah, and 
Moses, with Saul and David ; with Peter and Thomas and 
Barnabas. 

Weak men are often strong. Over against great in- 
firmities are set qualities of power. 

Jacob, though weak, was one of the world's strong 
men. Whatever he did he did with his heart, and all the 
impulses of his nature were strong ones. When he 



154 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

leaned toward God he leaned hard ; so also when he leaned 
toward evil. 

Jacob was not like Isaac, a smiling valley or a quiet 
lake. Nay, Jacob's soul was the ocean lashed by con- 
trary and clashing storms of impulse, now dominated by 
his faith and now by his greed ; now by pure and manly 
affection, and now by despicable meanness. Yet all the 
time he was the same Jacob, only good and evil were con- 
tending within him. After all, is not this picture of the 
Israelitish patriarch, pertinent also to our own day? 
Great vices are to-day found in close association with 
great virtues. Some one beautifully writes : 

"Is it true, O Christ in heaven, 
That the strongest suffer most ; 
That the noblest wander farthest, 
And most hopelessly are lost?" 

There is a deep truth in those two last lines. Great 
virtues make great vices possible, and the two walk hand 
in hand in the same soul. Jacob is no anomaly, no ex- 
ception, no marvel among men. His character and trials 
many of us understand. 

Notice, in the second place, the necessary conflicts in 
such a life. 

Here are two great opposing forces in Jacob's individ- 
uality. Two mighty armies are marshaled in his soul : — 
on the one side the deceit and craftiness and meanness, 
and on the other the better impulses of the man and his 
faith in God. To look at Jacob's individuality is to know 
at once that his life must be a stormy one. Clashing and 
contention must go on through his life. His soul will 
be rent and tossed, and buffeted till the very end, or till 
one of the two contending natures prevails. And so must 
every life be which has within it both great virtues and 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 155 

great vices. The two selves which made up such an indi- 
viduality can never be agreed. One or the other must at 
the end prevail. 

The beginning of this great moral battle is invited 
in Jacob's very setting out in life. The deceit is prac- 
ticed upon his aged father, and Jacob has to fly from 
home. He entered at once upon the consequences of his 
sin. The reaping came very soon after the solving! He 
left his father's home flying from his brother's wrath. 
Sad, as well as lonely, must have been that walk upon 
which he entered toward Haran. The very first night 
offered him only a stone for a pillow. But, penitent and 
disappointed, in mercy, and for a wise purpose, God gave 
him that comforting dream of the ladder, with ascending 
and descending angels. That first day of Jacob's jour- 
ney was a day of mental and spiritual struggle. But 
Jacob's better life prevailed that day. But that is only 
one of the struggles in that life. Jacob comes to his 
uncle's, and finds it very far from being smooth sailing 
there. Here again his life is tossed and stormy. Ten 
times his wages are changed, while Laban and Jacob vie 
with one another as to which shall outwit the other, and 
Jacob was cheated time and again. He got Leah for a 
wife when he wanted Rachael. All this was provocation, 
and it would seem that Jacob did not make much progress 
in grace while at Haran. It is the more probable that 
his craftiness increased. At all events, during those 
twenty years we have scarcely any glimpse of his faith. 
But now the time comes when he must leave his uncle. 
Haran is becoming too hot to hold him. The disagree- 
ments between himself and his uncle are increasing both 
in number and fierceness. Jacob flees into his own coun- 
try again. There, too, he has great reason to fear, for 
there is the old quarrel between him and Esau. Jacob 



156 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

stands between two fires. He fears the hostility of the 
uncle left behind, and dreads the revenge of his brother 
whom he had deceived. Even now he hears that Esau is 
coining against him with an armed band. The memory 
of his guilt quickly divines the object of Esau's approach. 
He knows that the thirst for revenge is still strong in 
Esau's heart. He knows that he stands in great personal 
danger. He makes his arrangements to propitiate his 
brother by presents, and betakes himself to the mountains 
alone, to pray. Ah, that was 

THE PIVOTAL HOUR 

of Jacob's life, for he met God face to face in some such 
revelation hour as Paul experienced on his way to Damas- 
cus. We cannot fully understand the mystery of that 
midnight wrestling in the darkness with God, but I think 
this much is plain : it was the struggle over sin, the strug- 
gle of repentance. It was the strong crying and tears 
of a soul deeply conscious of its guilt, and pleading for 
forgiveness. There may have been repentance before — a 
passing sorrow for sin, but not a deep, long-continued, 
vehement mental and spiritual struggle, — such an inward 
battle as may bring moral revolution to the soul. But 
now at this crisis hour, when the long-deferred punish- 
ment seemed to stare him in the face — now Jacob saw his 
sin in its true light, — now, helpless and penitent he 
cried importunately unto God. Before this he had trust- 
ed in his .craftiness rather than relied upon God. Like 
every scheming man, he comes to a crisis in which shrewd- 
ness cannot save. Jacob is now forced to fly to God. He 
goes to Him in an agony of penitence and fear. God 
meets him. God, the avenger, the unnamable, the awful 
presence, meets him now in condemnation. All the night 
he wrestles with the angel. He pleads with God ; he bfc- 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 157 

moans his sin; he supplicates forgiveness, until at last 
blessing falls upon him. Now Jacob is another, a new 
man, with neic name and neiv character. No longer 
strong in his oicn strength , he is now a prince with God, — 
to be known henceforth as Israel, one who has power with 
God and w T ith man. 

The life of every Jacob must be a stormy one. To 
have great, opposing forces in one's heart, is to have a 
life full of conflict and bitter strife. So tossed are we 
at times that it seems as if our lives were but a shuttle- 
cock for our virtues and our vices to sport with in their 
fierce games at battledore. Now driven hard by vice, and 
now checked by virtue and tossed back again to right and 
faith and God, but no sooner safe than seized again by 
vice and madly hurled to be caught again by patient vir- 
tue. So goes the game of our probation, and the madder 
our vices are, and the more persistent our virtues, the 
more will our lives be tossed like helpless puppets between 
heaven and hell. Every life must struggle, but with most 
characters who are striving to live Christian lives, the 
good, aided by Christ, is the predominating motive in the 
heart. Hence such lives are proximately consistent. 
Not so with forceful natures like that of Jacob. There 
is too much of evil there to yield except by the fiercest 
struggle. Such a life must be a stormy one, — now lifted 
high to heaven, — now plunged to deep abysses — fighting 
its way amid weariness and pain and trial to the end. 

Thank God for the Jacobs and the Peters and the 
Davids in the Bible, for they, too, like some of us, had 
much in their individuality that they had to struggle 
against. And yet the Lord loved them and trusted them. 
The Lord used them, and blessed the world with them. I 
find in this picture of the patriarch's life hope for every 
sin-burdened and sin-conscious heart. How many of us 



158 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

have looked on our neighbors, who seem always unruffled 
and peaceful in their religion, wishing that such a calm 
might be ours! But their individuality is different. Our 
individuality is such that only a conflict can develop us. 
with us, fierce battle is the price of victory, — struggle and 
wrestling the road to blessing. "Think it not strange, 
then, concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as if 
some strange thing had happened you/' but rejoice that 
you are counted worthy to suffer. God knows best, and 
it is He that has appointed our life-struggle for us. In 
the fierce battle He will be near us, and support us. 

3. I want you to notice in the third place the beau- 
tiful in Jacob's life. 

Here, too, you observe evidence of the good and the 
evil in the man — evidence of his dual life. 

There are two selves in each of us, and they are con- 
tending for the mastery. Sometimes it is the better — 
the more beautiful self that acts — sometimes the baser. 
One or the other of these selves is gathering power, and 
purposes to prevail! With Jacob it was his better self. 
The long vacillation of his life between good and evil was 
at last ended, and Jacob's declining years present a most 
beautiful picture in the Bible of rich and abiding trust in 
God. His old inconsistencies seem to have been fought 
down, and stamped out. Triumphant faith transfigured 
and illuminated with strange glory the last years of Ja- 
cob's life. Tender and affectionate, submissive under 
God's chastisement, a prince in faith, point out, if you 
can, a death more beautiful and glorious than Jacob's. 
No trace now in the last years of life of the old sins of the 
baser self. Jacob's nobler side and better self had con- 
quered. The lower had yielded to the higher nature. 
The upright, the beautiful, the heavenly, had triumphed 
gloriously in his life. 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 159 

You who are troubled with many a conflict — with 
weaknesses that get the better of you in the battle, give 
not over to discouragement. All the good of earth are in 
sympathy with you in the conflict. High heaven is 
watching, and the angels crowd the galleries, hanging 
breathless upon the struggle. Every time you practice 
meanness, or give way to temper, appetite, or whatever 
else is your besetment, you are contributing to the final 
triumph of your baser self. But every aspiration that 
rises to heaven, every heart-felt pleading, every sob of 
penitence, every wailing cry for help, every noble, manly 
struggle against sin, is a step toward the triumph of the 
soul. 

I wish I could impress upon you, with all the sun-lit 
vividness that this truth possesses, the importance of this 
daily, hourly struggle against sin: for it is in these mo- 
ments that our lives and characters are taking form for 
eternity! If we act more often, and by choice, in the baser 
self, by and by the baser self shall be the only self, and 
our characters will crystallize into an awful and eternal 
performance of evil! But, if we let our better selves 
triumph, then glory and honor shall await us at the last. 

And now, my friends, let us have a just charity for 
those restless, storm-tossed and inconsistent lives. God 
loves them, owns them, and in pity metes out to them a 
precious opportunity. There is great worth in them, and 
for their sake and ours they must be saved. They are the 
world's forceful men who possess great powers of useful- 
ness. We feel like rallying the more closely around them 
by reason of these mighty forces of good. We feel not 
and fear not so much for Isaac, that quiet, peaceful man 
with so perfect a poise of passion. He was a good man, 
of course. It is always easy for stuck men to be good, 
but with Jacob, with great swelling impulses to evil ; with 



160 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

a life full of flagrant sin, and yet with a great, forceful 
nature, there were counter-impulses and constant conflict. 
But with all the evil of the man there was enough of the 
noble and the excellent to make him the Jacob of Israel 
who prevailed with God, and after whom it pleased God 
to name his people. 

You who have great faults and great virtues, be not 
discouraged. Final triumph may be yours, and God may 
make you greatly useful in His service. Be sure, then, 
that little by little you are growing stronger; that your 
better self is triumphing; that amid all the storm and 
struggle of life you are veering toward God, and not 
away from Him. Go alone, if necessary, to the wilder- 
ness, to the mountain, to your closet to wrestle with God, 
and you shall prevail. God shall use you, and make your 
very name a heritage and blessing. Gather courage from 
the experience of this grand patriarch of the lesson to- 
day ; — and forget not the promise of the text : "Fear not, 
thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel, I will help thee, 
saith the Lord and thy redeemer, the holy one of Israel." 

O O O 

FRETTING 
TEXT— "Fret not thyself. 99 — Psalm 37: 1. 

The ancient idolaters had a deity to represent every 
human passion and impulse. It were in better keeping 
with Scripture had they imagined as many different de- 
mons assailing man at all the weaker points of his deprav 
ity. Among the most noted of these would have been the 
demon of discontent. 

But, whatever the origin of fretting — whatever its 
occasion or its aggravations — it is a forbidden evil. 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 161 

The Bible points a protesting finger toward every 
infirmity that dishonors God and does injury to man. 

Fretting does man injury. Fretting is to man what 
friction is to machinery — it is rubbing and rasping — it is 
wobbling and wear, and soon results in irreparable injury. 

Why, and whence, this fretting? The conflict be- 
tween secular perplexities and pious, peaceful states of 
mind, leads to a great deal of fretting. We attend the 
Sunday service; we join in prayer and song; we are in- 
spired by the sermon and lifted into loftier conceptions of 
Christian living. And now we resolve upon better self- 
control; upon greater calmness and consistency of life. 
This was on Sunday. 

Monday morning is upon you. Just a few hours 
have pushed you forward out of calmness and quiet of the 
Sabbath into the whirl and friction of business. Influ- 
ences now begin to operate to dissipate the spiritual im- 
pressions and nobler impulses of the late Sabbath. Per- 
haps the thought now comes to you : How much easier is 
it to maintain a pleasant poise of mind on Sunday, in 
the church, than in the shop, or store, the office, or school- 
room ; the nursery, or kitchen, on Monday ! 

In the church here to-night there is nothing to irritate 
you to evil thought. Scarcely for the world would you 
rail out here against your bitterest enemy. But the 
seven, eight and nine o'clock hours to-morrow morning, 
will find you in altogether different places, and amid dif- 
ferent surroundings. Your farm-hands come late to their 
work; your clerks are less alert than on other mornings. 
Children are to be urged from their beds, hurried in their 
toilet, and made ready for the morning meal, or the school. 
Monday's accumulated work calls for energy and exertion. 
Business makes new and unexpected demands. Bills 
mature to-day, and at three o'clock a note in bank will go 



162 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

to protest. Now, my brother, my sister, keep careful 
watch over your Sunday resolutions. If found off your 
guard you will be tempted to fret, and find fault. Not- 
withstanding your pleasurable emotions and high resolves 
in the sanctuary, you may, like the children of Israel, be 
betrayed into murmuring. Complaining children always 
make unhappy the home. It is possible that earthly par- 
ents take their distaste for murmuring from the Great 
Father above, who positively forbids fretting. A mother 
would rather her child would cry right out, than whine. 
An awful thing that is soon over is less awful than a petty 
annoyance that never ceases. A powder-mill explosion is 
more tolerable to the ear and nerves than a mouse gnaw- 
ing the long night just behind the headboard. Complain- 
ing Christians are always unhappy, and often make un- 
happy the church. 

God has always forbidden His dear children to mur- 
mur. To complain is to find fault with something be- 
longing to earth or to our earthly lot. And what is all 
this life of earth but His own wise and merciful appoint- 
ment? Are we to cross the Jordan before traversing 
the wilderness? Are we to taste the sweets of Canaan 
if we cannot trust God in the desert and the danger? 

In the providence of God, only a man, here and there, 
is so situated as to be free from secular care and per- 
plexity, — and he only seemingly so. 

For example, it is said that Mr. Spurgeon has no care 
as to the secular management of his household. He is 
told to give all his time to the church. His membership 
arrange that certain persons shall purchase the provisions 
for the family. They see that his horses are fed, and 
groomed. His carriage stands at his door, at his bidding. 
He is relieved of all concern as to secular affairs, even to 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 163 

the making and paying of all bills in the current expenses 
of living. 

Perhaps you say, "If J were relieved of all that, I 
could be as even-tempered and saintly as he. You should 
have thought twice before speaking thus. Though re- 
lieved of all those cares, Mr. Spurgeon bears a self-impos- 
ed load — (or, rather, a burden providentially placed) — 
greater, perhaps, than that of any man. But he does not 
chafe and fret. He does not walk the street or move 
among his people with a captious spirit, cringing before 
life's cares, and setting up petty and half-skeptical criti- 
cisms against the ways of God. It is a mistake to think 
that worldly ease brings quiet and calmness of spirit. It 
may bring the lull of laziness, the indifference of death, 
but not that divineness of self-control that comes to the 
Christian in his closet and in secular conflict — not that 
majesty of calmness which Christ speaks to the deep and 
terrible sea. 

I will notice, briefly, a few of the unreasonable causes 
of fretting. 

(1.) Unfavorable comparisons as to apparel. 

One man contrasts his apparel with that of another ; 
one lady hers with that of another; one child its dress 
with that of another. The difference of cost, fabric and 
fashion often excites jealousy, discontent, discouragement, 
and sometimes keeps persons away from all Sabbath-day 
services. Now God never made your intelligence, your 
manhood, your moral worth, your piety, or true independ- 
ence to depend upon your outward apparel. A man 
worth a million of dollars would excite no ridicule if he 
chose to come to church in the quaint garb of Puritanic 
times. Now, shall not our religion, our charity, our com- 
monsense, our pity and our politeness, cover as wide a 
distinction in financial and social life as a few green- 



164 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

backs or government bonds are allowed to cover? Ah, 
my brother, my hearer, beneath your costlier or cheaper 
raiment, God requires another, a spiritual dress, for 
which no earthly apparel shall have been a substitute in 
that day when only the robe of righteousness can admit 
you to the marriage supper of the Lamb. 

Every man and woman should have the independence 
to dress on week days and on the Sabbath, in just such 
apparel as his or her means may allow. In so doing one 
will detract nothing from the regard of all sensible and 
serious minds. Nay, he will rather augment that power 
for good which grows out of a just measure of individual- 
ism modestly manifested. 

The attempt of those of moderate means, in the 
church and out of the church, to keep pace with pride and 
a full purse, in dress, is a terrible strain upon one's peace 
of mind and piety. The great mass of American citizen- 
ship — and that which constitutes the strength and glory 
of the nation, are men and women in so-called moderate 
circumstances. They have a right to stand up, and stand 
to the front, in the glory of what they are, rather than in 
the cost and cut of what they wear. 

In the Bible the body is said to be more than raiment, 
but our timidity — (as often, perhaps, as our pride) — 
reads the Bible Hebrew wise — backward, — and concludes 
that raiment is more than the body. 

A clergyman visiting Saratoga for his health, wrote 
back to a friend that the belle of the season wears at times 
a dress — (and that but one of many others used for spe- 
cific occasions) — which cost a sum equal to his salary for 
two years. Her diamonds cost as much as the fine mis- 
sion church of his city, including its organ, gas bill and 
sexton expenses for a year. A lady whom I became ac- 
quainted with at a health and rest resort, last summer, 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 165 

wore diamonds that cost as much as all the churches in 
Troy, and had it not been for her constant dread that some 
other lady would arrive who would excel her dress and 
jewelry, she might have had a few moments' peace of mind. 
As it was, she was in constant dread of rivals by day, and 
of burglars at night. Had she been possessed of beauty, 
or culture, or Christian graces, these would have out- 
sparkled her gems of the mine, and would not have needed 
the protection of lock, and key, and pretty ivory -handled 
pistol. 

In the mere matter of dress, let no one fret. There is 
an inner adorning of mind and heart more comely than 
the fabrics of finger or loom, and more enduring than 
those silken patterns from the same piece, of which some 
are stitched and trimmed into garments for the living, 
and others plaited and folded into shrouds for the dead. 

(2.) The discrepancy between our ideal and our 
actual Christian life, leads to fretting. 

We know well enough how Christians should live, and 
know that we fall very far short of that ideal. 

Be not discouraged; murmur not at this. God has 
placed all standards of excellence above us, and not at our 
feet. This is in order that we may not be satisfied with 
what we are — that we may not sit at ease, or grovel, but 
strive, and climb, and rise. 

Visiting Salt Lake City a few years since, I desired, 
with a friend, to ascend a high mountain in that vicin- 
ity. In looking upw T ard it was evident that the summit 
towered thousands of feet, and that wearisome indeed 
must be the way. But it was much better that we should 
ascend to the summit, than that the summit should de- 
scend to us. Could it have come down to our feet, there 
would have been no effort, no helpful exercise, no pleasant 



166 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

sense of ascending, no inspiring outlook from a lofty alti- 
tude. 

The same law holds true with reference to all high 
standards. Murmur not, therefore, at the exactions of 
your holy profession. It is better that you rise into obe- 
dience, holiness, and augmented spiritual power, than that 
the standard of piety be brought down to the dust — to a 
compromise with passion and disappointing pleasures. 

We may fret over a perplexing problem in mathe- 
matics, but that will not change or simplify a single one 
of its four fundamental rules by which all its questions 
are solved. 

So we may murmur about that law of Christ which 
requires abstinence from both actual and apparent evil; 
that requires a life of prayer and of increasing spiritual- 
ity; but our worldly-mindedness and our obstinacy will 
make no change in that unalterable law of God by which 
you and I shall soon be judged. That law allows no man 
to fret because its standard of perfection is far, far above 
him ; but it sounds the alarm of doom into the soul of him 
who says : "I can sit down and be as happy as those who 
rise and climb; I can sin and be as safe as those who 
repent, and wage a life-long warfare against their infirm- 
ities !" 

(3.) The mistakes of our past life engender a great 
deal of fretting. 

Some of our city postofifices have a sort of local dead- 
letter office, employing, in some cities, as many as six or 
seven clerks in correcting the mistakes of other men — 
mistakes in illegible writing, incorrect spelling, wrong 
states, counties, etc. How many of us have wished for 
some place where we could leave our former life for re- 
pair, and receive it back again made free from all its past 
errors ! 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 167 

But life is not a page of manuscript that you can 
revise; not the superscription of a letter that you can 
correct. It is a journey, and if your course has been 
crooked in the past, by God's help you must make it 
straight in the future. 

4. The habit of borrowing trouble, leads to consider- 
able fretting. 

There is a class of persons who, seeing nothing in the 
present to fret about, peer forward into the future for 
something to worry over. It is well enough with them 
to-day, but they say nobody knows what may happen to- 
morrow. 

It is said that a man was walking on a double track 
railroad. He saw in the distance an express train com- 
ing toward him. He tried to spring off the track, but 
his foot caught, in some way, and held him fast. Great 
was his fright as he saw death so near and in form so ter- 
rible. The express train thundered on — nearer — nearer — 
but — it — swept by on the other track ! 

So most of the dangers that seem to approach you, 
in the near or distant future, are imaginary — are on an- 
other track. The greater number of the things that worry 
us have no existence save in a disordered fancy. Many 
things that in the dim distance look like shapes of peril, 
when we draw near them, melt into harmless shadows, or 
even change into forms of friendliness. 

Fear no evil. The hand of the Omnipotent Engineer 
is upon the throttle-lever, and the feeblest child of grace 
is as safe on the track of an awful Providence as a saint 
resting at the foot of the throne. 

II. Having enumerated a few of the causes of fret- 
ting, I will offer some suggestions that may help to a cure. 

(1.) No matter what your trouble, fretting does no 
good. 



168 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

If an eye is inflamed, will friction allay the fire? If a 
child is cross, will teasing smooth out the ruffles of its 
temper? It is a good rule never to fret about what you 
cannot help, because it will not do any good ; and never to 
fret about what you can help, because if you can help it, 
do so. 

(2.) Silence is often an effectual cure for fretful- 
ness. 

An aggravated man that is silent is like a cloud that 
cannot rain ; it soon drifts away, and vanishes, and then 
the sky is clear. So a dark scowl may hang upon the 
face of one in a worry, but if he keep his mouth closed, 
his lips silent, his temper will soon become sunny and 
serene again. It is Solomon that wisely says: "Whoso 
keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from 
troubles." (Prov. 21:23.) 

(3.) Remember that you are getting about as much 
happiness in this life as there is for any one. 

If at first thought this is not seen to be so, a little re- 
flection will show it to be a fact. 

Have you plenty to eat? Yes. Have you sufficient 
raiment? Yes. Have you a home, and some true 
friends? Yes. Now, he who has food, and raiment, 
and home, and friends, has about all there is in this life 
for any one. 

Mr. Astor inquired of a well-dressed young man if he 
would come and work for him. The young man asked as 
to the wages. Mr. Astor said: "I will board you and 
clothe you." The young man scorned such an offer. The 
millionaire replied : "But that is about all that I get. I 
have millions of dollars, but about all that I get out of it 
all is my board and clothes." 

There is much truth in that statement, and it illus- 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 169 

trates the wisdom of the apostle's admonition : "Having 
food and raiment, let us be therewith content." 

(4.) Your trouble is perhaps not so unpleasant as 
that which many of your friends and neighbors are bear- 
ing. A fair comparison will show this to be the case. 

In one of the allegories of Addison we have a striking 
illustration of this truth : A certain king heard that the 
people over all his realm were fretting, each because he 
thought his own trouble the worst, and therefore envied 
his neighbors. The king heard these complaints until he 
became tired of them. He therefore made proclamation 
that all the citizens of his kingdom should meet in a great 
plain on a certain day, and throw their troubles into one 
great mass together. The people gladly responded. The 
great procession marched in front of the king, and each 
person threw into the pile his particular affliction. 

One brings a box of grief over loss of property; an- 
other a package of slanderous reports ; another the annoy- 
ances of too frequent a visitor; another a great bundle 
of neuralgias ; another a mass of domestic infelicity ; and 
many mothers their special burden of domestic bereave- 
ment. 

All these cast into a heap, the king called on them, 
each one to select some trouble for himself, since of 
necessity every man and every woman must have some 
trouble or other. 

Thereupon all exchanged troubles. But in a short 
time the people complained more than ever before. No 
one was satisfied with the exchange he had made. 

The king now made a second proclamation. He 
made known to his subjects that every one of them could 
have his old trouble back. Every person hailed this an- 
nouncement with delight ! 

Your trouble, my brother, my sister, is not the worst. 



170 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Bad as it may be, you have learned to wear it. God has 
fitted it to your soul more kindly and comfortably than 
the cutter, with tape and rule, can adjust a garment to 
the outward form. 

When God chooses a work for us, a home for us, He 
fits us for its peculiar trials. Endure them as a good 
soldier. The true victory is not found in evading or 
escaping trials, but in rightly meeting and enduring them. 
The question should not be : "How can I get out of these 
worries? How can I get into a place where there are no 
irritations, nothing to try my trust in Christ, or put my 
temper to the test?" 

The question should rather be: "How can I pass 
through these trying experiences and not fail as a Chris- 
tian? How can I endure these struggles and not suffer 
defeat? How can I live amid these provocations and yet 
live sweetly, guarding my lips, bearing injuries meekly, 
and becoming more Christ-like in my domestic, social and 
business life?" 

All your experiences of perplexity abound in most 
needful blessing. Be careful that you recognize and 
reach forth for that needed good. Gather all the gold 
that lies in the hard rocks over which your feet stumble. 
Too many things which the unthinking look upon as per- 
plexities, are full of that which God intends shall uplift 
us and enrich us. 

Those Christian millionaires of our large cities — such 
as McCormick, and Miller, and Whitely, and Phelps, and 
Childs, have assured us that the very vexations of their 
business have kept them closer to Christ, and have opened 
their hearts and hands more widely to all human want. 
Their perplexities are great, but when for a time they have 
journeyed away from them for rest, they found a yet 
larger good in their return. It is more like heaven to 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 171 

be in the storm with Christ, than to lie down in a calm 
with a less consciousness of His presence. 

Mothers, in your homes you have had a like experi- 
ence to this. The babe seemed very troublesome as with 
its cries it broke your night's rest. But when you bore 
it to yonder hill and laid it beneath the sighing pines, 
what would you have given to hear its cry again ? What 
joy, what blessing the care of that child brought to your 
earthly life! So with all the cares that are cheerfully 
accepted and patiently borne. When accepted in this 
spirit, they become ministers to us of a profounder peace 
and sublimer hope. 

Lastly, away with complaint, and "let the peace of 
God rule in your hearts." Bear in mind those words of 
the wise man: "Fret not thyself." Let the admonition 
be sounded in store, and mill, and shop and home. 
Ill-temper is the closet skeleton of thousands of house- 
holds. Its bony fingers have furrowed the wife's face. 
Its shadow is upon the husband's spirit ; and its grin has 
frightened away the laughter and freedom of childhood. 
I believe the fretfulness of human life is a greater evil, 
and destroys more happiness than the invasion of armies 
and the spoils of conquest. In war there may be patriot- 
ism as well as passion. Mighty ideas of right may min- 
gle in its motives; heroic endurance of every hardship 
may attend its progress ; and saving the sacred palladium 
of freedom is sometimes its result. But, the excitable 
peevishness that kindles at trifles, that darkens the daily 
life of a million of families ; that scatters its little stings 
at the table and the hearthstone, what is this but an 
unmixed and unmitigated harm? What ingredient does 
it furnish but of gall? Its fine wounding opens at last 
a deeper gash than the saber. It brings a sharper pang 
than the adder's tooth ; a heavier pressure than when the 



172 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Almighty "hath touched you." Save, then, I beseech 
you, this broad deduction from your comfort, and im- 
mense addition to your suffering, by heeding the wise 
man's injunction: "Fret not thyself." Thus you will 
make yourself welcome to every circle, and every domestic 
scene you enter. Your family and your friends will bless 
your face for its helpful benediction. Your coming in 
at the door shall be a balm, and your words everywhere 
as "water-pools" in the "valley of Baca," How many a 
troubled spirit has been soothed ; how many a despairing 
soul saved by this music struck from the living lyre of a 
heart ever aglow with a Christly kindness! 

Cultivate, then, day by day the Christlike spirit. 
Murmur not, but rejoice in hope. Trials you shall have, 
for Moses and Aaron and Joshua had them. But keep 
your eye toward the Jordan crossing where every burden 
shall be laid by. Have you burdens day by day? Does 
some burden of spirit weigh upon you this hour? Jesus 
will make it light. Does some wave of trouble rise and 
rajl across your soul to-night? Call at once upon 
Jesus. He waits to speak the storm-controlling word. 

"Oh, what peace we often forfeit; 

Oh, what needless pain we bear; 
All because we do not carry 

Everything to God in prayer." 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 173 

GOD'S LAW OF EXAMPLE 

TEXT. — "Be thou an example to them that believe." 
— 1 Tim. 4 : 12. 

The great law of example should be clearly recognized 
by the individual who would do his full duty to God and 
man. Paul says: "Be thou an example to them that 
believe." 

In seeking to emphasize this exhortation of the apos- 
tle, what I have to say will cluster about this proposition : 
An individual has no right to pursue a course of action 
which, if universally followed, would be disastrous. Take 
some illustrations : 

1. A Christian says that he will have nothing to do 
with politics. Politics have become so corrupt, money 
and the saloon so control them, that he will not vote at 
any election. He will keep away from the polls entirely, 
Now comes in the great law of example. Every Chris- 
tian in the United States has the same excuse that you 
have for not voting. Every Christian in the United 
States has as good a right as you have for not voting. 
But suppose every Christian in the United States followed 
your example and refrained from voting. Corrupt as 
politics are now, would they not be a thousand-fold worse? 
Now comes our proposition : An individual has no right 
to pursue a course of action which, if universally followed, 
would be disastrous. 

2. A business man, a church member, says: "I be- 
lieve in temperance, even in total abstinence, but I will 
have nothing to do with any form of the temperance work. 
I will have nothing to do with Mr. Murphy's conservative, 
kindly course, and much less with a movement toward any 
new and independent party. In short, I shall stand 
aloof from everv sort of movement or measure that looks 



174 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

toward the restraint or extermination of this great enemy 
to the safety, sobriety, and good order of society." This 
same man says that he is pleased to hear of the progress 
the cause of temperance is making, but for various rea- 
sons he declines to take any part in the work. Now 
comes in the great law of example. Every man in the 
United States has the same right, my brother, that you 
yourself have to withhold your influence from every form 
of temperance work, be it ever so cautious, wise and con- 
servative. But suppose every man in the United States, 
and every man in the church, and in the best outside cir- 
cles of moral society, followed your example, and no oppo- 
sition was made to the progress and the ravages of intem- 
perance by anybody. Suppose that no one should do 
any more than you are doing to stay the onward march of 
this alcoholic iniquity, would not the condition of Frank- 
lin and of this whole country be most deplorable? Now, 
brother, did you ever seriously think whether, if all other 
persons pursued your course on this question, the sale of 
intoxicating liquors, of soul and body-destroying bever- 
ages, would not be as respectable as the grocery or dry- 
goods trade? — as the legal or medical profession, as me- 
chanical or agricultural pursuits? 

Grinnell, Iowa, a town of about 3,000 inhabitants, 
never had a saloon, and for twenty-five years it has sent 
no one to the penitentiary, the jail, or the poor-house. 
But had every citizen been as indifferent to the temper- 
ance interests of the people as yourself, would Grinnell, 
the seat of colleges, high-schools, and prosperous churches 
of Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Bap- 
tists and Christians, be without a saloon, as it now is, and 
as it has ever been ? No ; there would be, probably, fifty 
saloons in that beautiful city, and the now happy town 
would give evidence of its crime, its sorrow, its poverty, 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 175 

its ruined homes, by large representation in the prisons, 
the poor-house, the inebriate and insane asylums. 

Now, my brother, every one has just as good right as 
you to withhold your influence from the temperance work 
which is warning our youth against the grave and the hell 
of the drunkard, and also rescuing hundreds of husbands, 
fathers and sons from the sorrows of confirmed drunken- 
ness, and the hopelessness of an inebriate's death. Again 
comes in the proposition of this sermon: An individual 
has no right to pursue a course which, if universally fol- 
lowed, would be — disastrous. 

3. A professed Christian says that he will contrib- 
ute no money to the support of the church. 

He is worried, perhaps, by a debt on his property, or 
by some other obligation to a creditor. He may say that 
some one else is better able to give. At all events, he has 
some excuse for not giving. Now comes in the great law 
of example. Suppose that all should follow your exam- 
ple ! Can you not see that all the church, and all its out- 
side friends, should they set about it, could find some ex- 
cuse for not contributing? The devil hides these excuses 
in convenient places all about the house. He drops one 
in every one of your pockets. In this way your foot is 
against it or your hand upon it before you are aware of it. 
It's a bad "find." Don't bring it into the church. Don't 
exhibit and comment upon it to your friends. The very 
sight and sound of these imaginary obstacles and fabri- 
cated excuses are demoralizing to yourself and to your 
friends. With them Satan would trip you in your path, 
or turn you from the course of duty. Thwart his purpose, 
and give your penny, as did the poor widow, or your larg- 
er contribution, if God has given you larger ability. 

The rich and the poor in the church of Christ must 
cultivate benevolence. 



176 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

A returned missionary from China says that the 
heathen never go to their temple without carrying an offer- 
ing of some kind. They feel that they must give some- 
thing, though it be ever so little. On this point we per- 
haps need conversion, or reconversion, more than the 
heathen do. A boy in a Council Bluffs Sunday-school 
was asked the difference between the Presbyterian and the 
Methodist denominations. He replied that the only 
difference he could see was that the Presbyterians took 
up a collection at the morning service only, while the 
Methodists pass the hat all the time" 

That is right, in case there is any financial necessity 
for the frequency of such contributions. All have as 
much right as one to refuse to give in proportion to his 
means. For all to refuse would wreck the church. Here, 
again, applies the proposition: An individual has no right 
to pursue a course of action, which, if universally follow- 
ed, would be disastrous. 

4. A church-member says he proposes to indulge 
freely in some amusements to which the majority of the 
church are opposed. He will play cards. He will attend 
balls. He will go to the theater regardless of the charac- 
ter of the play. Now comes in the law of example. Every 
one of us has the same right to do these things as you 
have. Suppose that every member of any one church here 
in Franklin were to follow your example. Suppose all 
the members of that one church attend dancing parties, 
its pastor acting as floor-manager, and the elders and dea- 
cons leading the sets. It becomes known to this commun- 
ity that that is a church all of whose members participate 
in dances. When a stranger in town inquires about this 
church, he is told: "Oh, yes, that is a peculiar sort of 
church ; don't know just how you would like it, or whether 
you would wish to join it or not, — all the members are ex- 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAiS 171 

quisite dancers. That, stranger, is what the people here 
in Franklin call the dancing church." The stranger is 
further informed that all the members of this church have 
no scruples about playing cards. "The pastor, deacons 
and leading members have become experts in shuffling and 
cutting the deck and in making the deal, and I warn you 
against offering to play with them unless you are pious, 
and an expert in the tricks of the game." 

After a church should have such a name as this in the 
community, what influence for good could it command? 
With how much of revival power could it join in a meet- 
ing this winter: How many of the poor sinners that 
sicken and die in the community would seek the prayers 
of its pastor or deacons before passing into the presence 
of the great God? 

"Oh," you say, "of course it would not do for all the 
church to engage in those things, to be that sort of people ; 
that, we all know, would kill the church." Yes, my 
brother, my sister, but all the church has just as much 
right to engage in those things as you have. What you 
seem to propose is, for the majority of the church to be- 
have themselves real nicely, keep up its reputation for 
piety, reflect its moral light, while you have liberties con- 
trary to your covenant vow^s, detrimental to your happi- 
ness, hindering to your higher influence, destructive to 
your usefulness, and disqualifying you to meet death as a 
dear man or woman, or young man or maiden that loved 
Jesus and walked with Him down to the brink and the 
crossing of the narrow river. Oh, for the sake of your own 
soul, for the sake of the influence of the church of Christ ; 
for the sake of children living, or watching for you from 
the higher windows; for the sake of a mother living, or 
who speaks to you from sealed lips beneath a green mound 
on yonder hill, live for Christ, deny yourself for Christ, 



178 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

work for Christ, suffer for Christ, that you may at last 
and forever reign with Him. 

5. Consider how this principle applies to the Sun- 
day-school and the prayer-meeting. 

You do not attend prayer-meeting. Still, you would 
not like to have it said that your church has no prayer- 
meeting! That would sound bad. But all members of 
the church have just as good a right as you to refrain 
from attending prayer-meeting. 

You do not attend Sunday-school. You would not 
like, however, for your church to have no Sunday-school. 
That would look bad, and ~be bad. But if all followed 
your example there would be no Sunday-school, and all 
have the same right that you have not to attend Sunday- 
school. Now take a more sweeping glance at the inevit- 
able consequence of the universality of your example. In 
other words, should everybody do as you do. there would 
not l)e a prayer-meeting or a Sunday-school in all the 
world! And yet everybody has the same right that you 
have not to attend Sunday-school or prayer-meeting. 
Here, again, applies the proposition: An individual has 
no right to pursue a course of action which, if universally 
followed, would be disastrous. 

6. See with what force this principle applies to the 
moralist! He lives a strictly moral life; everybody likes 
him, but he does not deem it essential to be a church- 
member. Father Taylor, of Boston, speaking of one of 
these men, was asked if he was a Christian. Father 
Taylor replied : "No, he is not a Christian, but he is one 
of the sweetest sinners you ever saw." 

Every community has some of this peculiar class of 
citizens — often regular church-goers — attentive, intelli- 
gent, appreciative hearers. They are in many ways good 
people, but they cannot be persuaded to join the church. 



SERMONS ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 179 

Let us apply now the great law of example. If you can 
discharge your whole duty without connecting yourself 
with the church, everybody in this world can discharge 
his whole duty without connecting himself with the 
church. 

But, if all mankind followed your example, there 
would not be a church-member nor a church of Christ on 
the globe! Never would baptism be administered, nor 
the Lord's Supper celebrated. This would be the result 
if all were to follow your example. It would blot the 
church from the face of the earth! Here, too, comes in 
the proposition : An individual has no right to pursue a 
course which, if universally followed, would be disastrous. 

7. To death-bed repentance this principle applies 
with great force. 

An individual says that when he comes to die, it will 
be time enough to think about religion. He will thus have 
all there is both of this world and of the next. He will 
enjoy all the sinful pleasures of this life until death 
beckons to him, and then he will repent and secure all the 
enjoyments of the world to come. This is the plan of thou- 
sands who do not so declare themselves, and who will not 
admit that they even purpose or hope to do so. Let us 
here, and lastly, apply the great law of example. If you 
can surely get to heaven by a death-bed repentance, and in 
ignoring Christian living, all can get to heaven by a death- 
bed repentance and in ignoring Christian living. If you 
can take that course when Christ has required of you 
your childhood, your youth, your ripest strength, your 
fullest powers, all can go to heaven in the very same way. 
All have just as good a right as you to take that course. 
But, if all followed your example, there would to-day be 
no one on this globe living a Christian life! All that 
would remain of religion would be a few pious expressions 



180 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

when people came to die ! Now comes in the proposition 
of my appeal to your sense of danger and of duty to- 
night : "An individual has no right to pursue a course of 
action which, if universally followed, would be disastrous. 

OOO 

THE PASTOR AND THE EVANGELIST IN REVIVAL 

WORK 

Barnes says that it cannot be proved that the word 
evangelist had the same meaning (and was so applied), 
in the days of the apostle, as to-day. See Barnes on 
Ephesians 4 : 11, p. 89. 

All themes that bear upon revival work in winter 
have a growing importance. Never before have revival 
meetings had so prominent a place in the founding of new 
churches and the strengthening of already existing organ- 
izations. The mass of the people are intensely engaged 
in secular pursuits, during the summer. The winter 
brings their period of spare time. It is their opportunity 
to attend services for more specific and effective gospel 
teaching. We can no more have a revival all the year 
than we can have an all-the-year tasseling of corn, or sing- 
ing of birds. There is in nature and grace a growing 
period and a ripening period — the bursting forth of a new 
life, followed by its stage of unfolding and maturing. 

In the founding and growth of churches the gospel 
recognizes two especially effective agencies — the pastor 
and the evangelist. The evangelist was once a more 
needful instrument in church founding and growth than 
he is to-day. Formerly, churches were few, the popula- 
tion sparse, isolated, most of the people poor, and most 
of them non-professors. In such a condition, pastoral 
work was impracticable, and pastoral support impossible. 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 181 

Then the evangelist must preach, teach, exhort, receive 
into church, and baptize. At that time he must combine 
in his one character many qualifications, and perform 
divers duties. 

Since apostolic times and pioneer days, the social 
and moral condition of society has greatly changed. But 
New Testament evangelism is flexible, adaptative, and 
suits itself to all times and all the evolution of society. 

No changes, however, are likely to supersede the ne- 
cessity of either pastor or evangelist. Changes may mod- 
ify, and have modified, the work of each. The progress 
of Christianity and the higher plane of society have given 
new mutual relations to these two servants of the church. 
For each a higher standard of qualification has been set 
up. This is so because in everything God is marching 
on, and not to keep step with him is to fail as workers to- 
gether with him. 

Of the two, the times have made the pastoral func- 
tions the more effective in genuine and lasting evangeliza- 
tion. Well studied, intelligent preaching has more to do 
than formerly with home life, student life, thoughtful life, 
intelligent, progressive life. Standards of conversion, 
of public profession, of Christian living are higher, and 
more intelligently spiritual. Intellectual culture and 
refinements, more than formerly, are associated with, and 
counted a more essential part of one's religion. Emo- 
tion, assertion, vociferation in the pulpit will not satisfy 
these truer standards and this higher intelligence. Nor 
will they incite to action moral faculties that are infinite- 
ly above the low plane of the physical and sensuous. Such 
facts, and such manifest conditions as these, call for the 
well-qualified, settled pastor and teacher — a man of God, 
whom the church puts in touch with the home life, and the 
personal life of his parish, and of all the people. His 



182 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

light among them is thus a constant shining. It is not 
an evangelistic meteor, whose brilliancy blinds the people 
to all the fixed and steady-shining orbs of heaven. Un- 
der the pastor the church enjoys perpetual instruction, in- 
creasing inspiration, organized and everyday activities, 
the forces of a day-by-day evangelism, that ripens the 
wholesome, substantial fruit of all-round conversion and 
of continuous rather than spasmodic and periodic ingath- 
erings. 

One may ask: Can the professional evangelist help 
the pastor? Reply may be made that the most successful 
present-day pastor combines with his other qualifications, 
all the essential elements of the evangelistic talent. 
What he may lack in exhortation, he may supply through 
other forms of appeal. He may wield the advantage of 
personal acquaintance, well proved friendship, plain and 
affectionate gospel preaching. Experience proves that, 
as a rule, a better and more substantial class of converts 
are thus won for Christ and the church. Evangelist con- 
verts are too often made under emotion. Too often have 
they been moved by revivalistic machinery more than by 
Scripture, argument, conviction, and the presence of the 
Holy Spirit. There is a class of hearers that swarm 
around a newly-arrived evangelist as swallows fly home to 
their nightly roost. Dazed by his newness and novelty, 
such persons are quickly trapped into an astonishingly 
long list of new converts. It is much to be regretted, 
too, that a professed evangelist should ever use his calling 
as a jugglery to get unstable souls of other churches into 
his own, and to get expression from his audience that 
commits them to the church in ways they did not compre- 
hend, and did not intend. True, there are many noble, 
manly, Christlike evangelists in that soul-winning work, 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 183 

but it is a calling attended with peculiar snares, and 
among them are these : 

1. An extreme and unscrupulous zeal for a show of 
numbers leading to mystic methods, and to bold and well- 
hidden devices for proselyting. To these ends shrewd 
and well-disguised plans are devised. The people are 
asked to rise, hold up hands, a part of them kneel and a 
part remain seated; a part of them sing while on their 
knees, and a part sit, or stand, or sign a card, or do some 
other bidding in assent to some not very specific proposi- 
tion. Then their names are sent to the press or handed 
to the reporter, as so many new converts. Eeally all this 
is but so much more wind for the evangelist's kite of ego- 
tism and fictitious reputation. In such ways as these, 
his services are a series of catch-processes, traps and 
strategic plans, to decoy men into church as birds are 
taken by a fowler. Protracted meetings so conducted, 
are little above the level of "the spider and the fly" trag- 
edy. Such processes look too much like using the gospel 
as a hoodwink instead of lifting it up as a light. It 
looks as if the evangelist, instead of working openly 
among the people as did the Master, is a deceiver, walking 
in masquerade. 

2. The evangelist's temptation to attribute large in- 
gatherings to his own preaching, and his own connection 
with the meeting, may make him reluctant to recognize 
any conversion as the result of pastoral and lay work 
faithfully done by others before his coming. He may not 
think of the possibility, that if he had remained at home, 
and pastor and people had worked earnestly together, the 
ingathering may have been as large or larger without him 
than with him. Such may have been possible, for it is 
the experience of inany churches that meetings held by 



184 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

the pastor and themselves have in every way been most 
free and full of good. 

3. The temptation to misconstrue and over-estimate 
those flatteries, and sometimes foolish attentions, which 
a thoughtless element in a church are likely to lavish upon 
the stranger. If the evangelist is the center of such at- 
tentions, in a little time he may feel that he is a more 
suitable man than the pastor, and that he ought to listen 
to suggestions to a "call," or make suggestions to sup- 
plant. These fake evangelists have unsettled many a 
church, but have never brought good to a single one of 
them. 

The above-named are but a few of the temptations 
through which so-called evangelists have brought reproach 
upon the calling, and made their presence in the parish a 
baneful, dividing, unsettling influence — a hindrance in- 
stead of a help to the pastor. 

This paper would be far from saying that more than 
a small minority of evangelists have wilfully and wickedly 
abused their vocation — have played the part of self-seek- 
ers and deceivers. Nevertheless, men who are much of 
the time away from home, who look to hand-money and 
passing baskets for their pay, who are often insincerely 
flattered and sumptuously fed, should be well armored 
against the weaknesses that date back to that apple in 
Eden. 

Brethren, may it not, after all, be said that it is the 
experience of most of ministers, that protracted meetings 
are usually most successful under the co-operative effort 
of pastor and church? Many pastors have so declared. 
As to the correctness of their declaration, my own experi- 
ence testifies affirmatively that serial meetings without an 
evangelist have manifest advantages in their favor. It 
cultivates in the pastor the evangelistic element. It im- 






SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 185 

parts to his preaching more of the needed unction. It 
gives to his discourses more of a spiritual and persuasive 
fervor. It brings him into more of a heart-to-heart 
nearness to his people. He thus becomes stronger with 
them for their good, and the flock more quickly know and 
answer to the voice of their shepherd. After meetings 
thus held the pastor has increased power with his people. 
His hold upon the new members is stronger, more fath- 
erly, more effective, than if they had united with the 
church under the preaching of a stranger. 

For the church also it is better, as a rule, that pro- 
tracted meetings be held by the joint labors of the pastor 
and the laity. The churches need more training in per- 
sonal and specific work for souls. In its effort to help 
others it does the best and most helpful thing to revive, 
strengthen, and perpetuate and bring genuine prosperity 
to itself. 

When a church has sent for a professional evangelist, 
the membership incline to rely too largely upon him. 
They may expect success from his reputation, his pecu- 
liarity of preaching, his personal magnetism, his manner 
of conducting services, his novel methods of drawing an 
audience. Often this feeling of ease, this restful, pray- 
erless dependence upon a revivalist, defeats his own ear- 
nest and well-meant efforts. And when success does fol- 
low, the church is too liable to conclude that the evangel- 
ist did the work, and that next winter, and in all future 
winters, nothing good can be accomplished without the 
same or some other evangelist. This is proof that per- 
sons may be mistakenly converted more to men 5 to meth- 
ods, to newness, to novelty, and even to crankism, than to 
Christ. 

Many good and prosperous churches seem to have 
outlived and outgrown the necessity of an evangelist. 



186 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Having called such help several winters in succession, 
they noticed that a revival never fully began, or at least 
never developed, till the evangelist went home* That, 
perhaps, was not because the pastor's preaching was abler 
than the evangelist's, but because the pastor was nearer 
to the people, and had the benefit of their personal ac- 
quaintance and Christian confidence. 

If the trend of this paper seems to leave the evangel- 
ist no mission and no field, be it said that no statement 
herein is intended to assert that position. The world is 
yet the field, as in the day of the great commission. The 
revivalist's work yet has worth equal to that of souls un- 
saved, and is far-reaching as the blight of sin. Evangel- 
istic talent is as divinely given, and may be as effectively 
used to-day, as in the times of John the Baptist, Philip, 
Peter, Barnabas, and Paul ; Whitfield, the White Pilgrim, 
Walter or Worley; Earl, Harrison, Moody, Mills, C. J 
Jones, or C. L. Jackson. 

The evangelist and the pastor who are up-to-date in 
fitness to meet the demands made upon their work, may be 
mutually helpful. In many cases neither can have the 
fullest possible success without the other. Confessedly, 
however, the functions of each have been greatly modified 
by the changed social and intellectual condition of the 
times. Hence the standard of their qualification has 
been both broadened and heightened. The conditions of 
their success are multiplied, and are more complex. The 
largest intellectuality, the highest morality, the deepest 
spirituality are more than ever before needed and more in 
demand. Only the strong, pure, pious, spiritual, refined, 
all-round man is fitted to come into our churches and into 
our homes and families as a professional evangelist. The 
church gate and the home gate should alike be closed to 
the pretender — the irresponsible, self-styled, roaming re 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 187 

vivalist ; against the loaf and fish lover ; against the volup- 
tuary and the libertine; against the sensationalist and 
emotionalist; and against all classes of itinerant, migra- 
tory, spiritual quacks. 

When, however, the church and the general interests 
of the parish and the people appear to require it, the pas- 
tor may do well to secure the help of a competent and 
reputable evangelist. Under his help a revival will not 
become artificially sensational and emotional. It will 
not be followed, as is frequently the case, with such reac- 
tion as weakens and unsettles when the result should have 
been increased strength and stability. 

Such an evangelist will help the pastor to bring his 
church into a higher condition of spirituality, a better 
state of organization, a stronger feeling of unity, a more 
ardent love for all religious labor. 

This one suggestion now in conclusion : That the pas- 
tor will do well to cultivate in himself more largely the 
evangelistic talent, and that he may become more able to 
meet all the spiritual w^ants of his people ; that he may the 
more certainly secure their co-operation with himself in 
revival services; that he may thus assure to his people a 
more steady, wholesome, spiritual growth, and thus put 
at their own command all the essential human helps in 
serial meetings, in spiritual enlargement, in church use- 
fulness, and in the salvation of souls. 

O O O 

THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION IN RELIGIOUS 
TEACHING 

In all ages illustration has been a conspicuous ele- 
ment in instruction. The human mind is so constituted 
that it learns most readily by illustration. This fact 



188 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

seems largely based upon the law of resemblance. Things 
that we do not know are like those which we do know. 
It seems easy to learn something that is like unto, or sug- 
gested by, that which we already know. The hearer may 
sleep under abstract reasoning, but when the speaker is 
heard to say : "Now this is like unto," etc., instantly all 
eyes are open, and all ears are eager to hear. The great- 
est of teachers was often heard say : "It is like unto," etc. 
Of Him it is said : "Without a parable spake He not unto 
them." 

In teaching the International Sunday-school lessons, 
as in all other teaching, illustration helps to command 
attention, to hold attention, to convey information. 

The illustrative method of teaching has many things 
in its favor. It is within the reach of all ; it simplifies 
the truth; it renders it more attractive; it impresses it 
more deeply. In thus teaching, a wide field of resources 
is open to the instructor: as anecdote, proverb, parable, 
allegory, apologue, literature, biography, art, science — the 
broad field of human life. Moreover, this method of 
teaching appeals to all classes, and reaches all classes. 
Object lessons, whether presented to the eye or the imag- 
ination, interest adults as well as children. The older 
members of the Sabbath-school have as great a partiality 
for illustrated papers as have the little children. Such 
papers are among the first to attract attention and to be 
read when taken home. With both old and young a figure, 
a picture, anything visible to the eye or vivid in the imag- 
ination, is more easily retained in memory than abstract 
truth. Most minds cannot readily grasp the truth to 
be taught until it is presented in concrete form. 

Enumerating the different methods of illustrative 
teaching, we may speak, first, of 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 189 

OBJECT TEACHING 

— teaching by tangible, visible things — things in hand, on 
the table, on the wall — emblems, symbols. These appeal 
to the eye — call the eye to our aid. The eye is one of the 
chief avenues to the mind. Good and evil come to the 
mind, the heart, the life, through the eye. Bunyan made 
no mistake in that quaint remark: "We must reach the 
mind and soul through the Eye-gate as well as through 
the Ear-gate." It is part of a child's and of a man's 
moral training to attain the habit of close and accurate 
observation. This habit — this ability — is considered es- 
sential in various branches of secular study. Hence such 
training in the kindergarten, in primary mathematics, in 
the school of surveying, in the careful study of color, form, 
size in railway signals, in nautical and military life. In 
all this we have an impressive lesson on the importance 
of the spiritual training of the child in the matter of right 
seeing — correct seeing — the power of moral, harmless, 
helpful observation. The eye needs this religious object 
training. The eye, like the heart, needs to be trained 
and kept with all diligence. 

The use of objects in teaching has the sanction of 
the highest and of very ancient authority. David, under 
the inspiration of God, said that the wicked should be 
driven away like chaff. When God drives the chaff be- 
fore the gale, He reminds the sinner of his predicted fate. 
Through a most impressive object lesson the Almighty 
gives timely warning to the wicked. To impress a Sun- 
day-school with this threatening of the Lord against the 
wicked, the teacher may hold a small quantity of chaff in 
the open palm, and suddenly blow it away with a breath. 
Be assured that what David said about the wicked will 
not be forgotten. 

The pages of the Jewish scriptures are thickly strewn 



190 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

with instances of object- teaching, — with types taken from 
both the natural and the artificial kingdoms of the world. 
These represent and impress the most important truth. 
They reveal the divine thought, and set great truths be 
fore the mind in forms of beauty — in features that charm 
and win the heart. 

The Psalms abound in instances of object teaching. 
The whole of the types and ceremonies of the Old Tes- 
tament — the law of Moses — the Levitical ritual, — was but 
an imposing and impressive series of this mode of object 
teaching. It was adapted to a condition of mind pecu- 
liar to man's moral childhood. God took the spiritual 
measure of these children, so little in their religious 
stature, and fitted the garment of religious instruction to 
them. But there are modifications of the same methods 
of teaching which neither the mental nor the religious 
man can ever outgrow. 

Our Savior Himself practiced this mode of teaching, 
and it told with irresistible effect. Take this example: 
The crafty scribes and Pharisees tried to entangle Him in 
His talk. Hence they asked Him the question : "Master, 
is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not ?" He wanted 
to answer them in the most impressive way — through both 
the eye and the ear. He said: "Show me the tribute 
money." And they brought Him a penny. Directing 
their eye to the coin, He asked : "Whose is this image, and 
superscription ?" Looking at the piece of money, they 
were obliged to say, "Caesar's". Then came the skillful 
and impressive application : "Render, therefore, unto 
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the 
things which are God's". 

On another occasion Christ impressed His disciples 
with a lesson they had not yet learned. He took a little 
child. He set it conspicuously in their presence. He 



SERMONS ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 191 

then made them feel, as they had never before felt, their 
personal lack of humility — of unselfishness. 

The people once thought it was a great thing to be a 
king, and to sit enthroned in gorgeous robes. With eyes 
uplifted to earthly thrones, they had overlooked the regal 
vestments of the field. Christ showed them the lily, as 
they had never seen that flower before. From that day 
to this, the spiritually-trained eye and mind see in the lily 
a glory transcending that of Solomon. 

Men were wont to be anxious about their food, their 
raiment, and full granaries. Jesus told them that the 
ravens sow not, neither reap nor gather into barns. God 
feeds them, and men are better than the fowls. The dis- 
ciples understood, left all, followed, trusted. 

There are numerous other instances in which Christ 
used the objects around Him in illustration of spiritual 
truth. Your familiarity with these renders special men- 
tion of them unnecessary. 

By the use of a suitable object, oftentimes the teach- 
er may explain and impress a Bible allusion. 

For example, you are speaking to children concerning 
the manna that fell in the wilderness. You might toss 
up some small bits of white paper, and as they fall, ask 
the children what it reminds them of? "Of the falling 
snow," will probably be their answer. You now have 
their attention, and you have put them into a good condi- 
tion of mind in which to teach them about the falling of 
the manna, its whiteness — like that of snow; how the 
children of Israel were fed on it, etc. 

Your lesson is on the birth and infancy of Christ, — 
how He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. You could 
illustrate, (as I remember that Mrs. Crafts did, in the 
International Sunday-school Convention in Chicago,) by 
holding up a roll of cloth some six inches wide, and about 



192 Life and writings 

five feet long, when unrolled. But it is yet in the roll. 
The children see it. They wonder what it is, and what 
is to be done with it. They have read that the infant 
Christ was wrapped in swaddling bands, and laid in a 
manger. You unroll the cloth, and say : There is a swad- 
dling band. It was in just such bands as this that the 
infant Christ, according to the customs of that day, was 
wrapped. The children have at once learned something 
they can never forget. Many grown persons have also 
learned something they never knew before. 

In talking to the children about letting their light 
shine, and in illustrating what Christ says about lights 
hidden under a bushel, you will help the memory, and 
deepen the impression, by having at hand an old-time can- 
dle and candle-stick, or better still, a primitive lamp in 
which a rag wick and lard, or oil, were used. Also, a 
lighthouse, with rocks and sandbars, might be drawn on 
the blackboard. With the children's eyes now interested, 
and their minds excited, you are prepared to talk about 
the rocks that are in our way — the rock of a hasty temper, 
the rock of profanity, the rock of Sabbath-breaking, the 
rock of falsehood, the rock of stealing, the rock of drunk- 
enness, and so on. We may teach how, as lights, we are 
to prevent people from sailing or stumbling against these 
rocks, and being wrecked and ruined forever. 

In teaching the children how the gospel has spread 
from small beginnings — from only twelve apostles, — you 
might hold in your hand twelve grains of corn. You may 
ask: "Do not these seem very little to plant the whole 
world with? Yet that is what Jesus did. He chose 
twelve men, most of them poor and uneducated. But 
they came and learned of Christ. He made them wise 
and strong for their work. Now they were able to go out 
into the world and spread the good news." 



SERMONS ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 193 

Some object for a lesson is always near at hand. On 
our way to the Sunday-school, in every lane, by every way- 
side, in every wood and field, there is within our reach 
some simple thing which we may take with us, — which, 
with a little thought and skill, may be made the basis of a 
useful talk to children — to all the school. But further 
to illustrate: 

In teaching children about the wise men, who were 
led by a star, a large star may be drawn on the blackboard, 
with the name Jesus in its center. You may then ask the 
children — before proceeding to the explanation — where 
they have seen a star. "In the sky," of course. What 
are some of the names of the stars ? They repeat several 
names. You now have them in a good state of mind in 
which to tell them that you are going to teach them some- 
thing about a new star, — a star that God had promised 
1,500 years before it appeared. And so you can go on to 
tell all the story about the guiding star, — how Jesus is the 
bright and morning star,— a beacon star, — a guiding star, 
etc. 

In teaching children concerning the place — the stable 
— where Christ was born, a bit of hay, not larger round 
than you finger, might be held up. Where is this from? 
Where is it usually kept — in what building? Yes. Well, 
who was born in a stable ? The hay, and the ready asso- 
ciations, have suggested — and impressed — the proper an- 
swers. You may now talk in your own way about this 
interesting story. With a skill and a pleasant expres- 
sion, tempered with reverence, you might, — holding the 
hay in your hand — recite Luther's Christmas poem, writ- 
ten for his own children, and beginning : — 

"Away in a manger, no crib for his bed, 

The little Lord Jesus lav down his sweet head. 



194 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

The stars in the sky look down where he lay, 
The little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay." 

A temperance lesson may be taught by drawing on 
the board a number of glasses, as if set by so many differ- 
ent plates on the table. But one of the glasses is invert- 
ed. "Now, children," you say, "you can never be a 
drunkard so long as you keep your glass upside down. 
Children, when the beer, or wine, or whiskey is passed, 
you must never turn the goblet the other way." This 
object lesson will make a more lasting impression — 
will be worth more to the child — than a dozen labored and 
profound talks on the dangers of intemperance. 

I briefly call your attention to another kind of object 
teaching. We will term it Word Picturing, or Word 
Painting. 

This is but another form of object teaching. The 
object is described by suitable words. Not only must the 
eye of a child be trained, and held, but the ear as well. 
This can be done, and ought to be done. It is a valuable 
schooling, a helpful exercise, for both teacher and pupil. 
The mind has its eye, as well as the body. The children 
must be trained in their mental vision, their imagination, 
their inward perception of truth. One of the strongest 
faculties of the child is the faculty of imagination. If 
preserved from perversion, if properly trained, it becomes 
a source of happiness and a power for usefulness. 

Originally, words were but pictures, and he who can 
still turn his words into explanations, and pictures, and 
visions of truth, commands an enviable power over the 
childhood and adult mind. In order to effective word- 
painting, the teacher must obtain a thorough understand- 
ing of the truth to be taught — of the person, place, or 
thing to be described. All must be vivid and real before 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES ESSAYS 195 

the teacher's mind. He must be able to talk of Gennesa- 
ret, or Jerusalem, or Jordan, as if he stood at the very 
lakeside, in the streets of the city, or on the banks of the 
sacred stream. While talking, he must actually feel as if 
he were standing there. This method of teaching inspires 
one to the fullest possible acquaintance with his theme. 

Another essential element in word-painting is to be 
truthful— truthful to what the child has seen, has read of, 
may reasonably have imagined, or may have power to 
comprehend ; — truthful to manners and customs to which 
you allude, or to w r hich you call the child's special atten- 
tion. Be thus truthful, and you will teach TRUTH, 
impress it, and arouse the child's moral nature to higher 
and diviner understanding. Take a single illustration 
of the efficacy and impressiveness of word-painting : 

"Standing on the top of Cheviot Hills, a father 
brought before the child this picture, by which he meas- 
ured, if we may so speak, the measureless love of God; 
he said, pointing to the north, over Scotland, and then 
south over England, and then east over the German Ocean, 
and then sweeping over the circle of the horizon to the 
limitless extent of hill and dale, he said, "Johnny, my 
dear, as big as all that is the love of God." And the 
child looked up and the child looked around, and the child 
looked across the ocean and across hill, and with flushed 
cheeks, and with sparkling eyes, he said, "Oh, papa, then 
we are right in the midst of it." That is what you want 
to do; you want to bring the picture and the scenes all 
around the child, until the child feels as if he had been 
taken up, as if he had been dropped into those scenes, 
that happened centuries and centuries ago, and that he is 
right in the midst of it, and that it is all right around 
him. 

I have said that in word-painting you must be true 



196 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

to the child's knowledge, true to its observations, true to 
usages in its own city, or section of country, — true even 
to its articles of daily diet. Otherwise, you may make 
a very false impression; or, a very inappropriate answer 
may be given to a question which you thought would in 
itself suggest the right reply. For example, a western 
Sunday-school worker, addressing a school in Boston, 
asked the children : "How many of you had breakfast this 
morning ?" Up went many little hands. The second 
question was: "And what did you have for breakfast ?" 
In Chicago, where the speaker lived, the answer would 
have been, "Bread and butter", as the speaker intended. 
But from that Boston audience the shout went up, as if 
the children had been drilled in concert : "Baked beans !" 
And so the object lesson came very near being a failure. 
Word-painting may be not only in prose, but also in 
verse. The more vividly and indelibly to impress upon 
the childhood mind the apostolic number, and names, they 
may be thus thrown into measure and rhyme : 

"Peter and Andrew, James and John, 

Fishermen of Capernaum; 
St. Thomas and St. Matthew, too, 

Phillip and Bartholomew; 
James, the just, and Jude, the brave, 

Simon, the zealous, and Judas, we have." 

Object teaching may also be done through 

PHYSICAL ACTION, OR MOTION 

In this way also we may often teach the lesson, and 
impress it, especially upon the little ones. For example, 
you might say: "Children, hold up your hands this way 
(illustrating) ; shake your hands; look at your hands a 
moment; now tell me whose are the first pair of hands 
you ever heard about." Perhaps most of them will an- 






SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 197 

swer, "Adam's". You say: "There was a pair of hands 
back of that!" They see the point, and at once answer, 
"God's hands!" Now tell me, children, something that 
God's hands made. This calls out their memory, their 
thought, and they go on to tell about the world, man, 
woman, and so on. You can lead the child's thought 
still farther along, touching the more visible and striking 
objects of the divine workmanship. 

Using the hands for further instruction, you may say : 
"Children, reach your hands up as high as you can; 
every one; every hand up. Did you ever hear, children, 
of anybody that reached her hands up and took some fruit 
that she was forbidden to touch? Yes. Who was it? 
Eve. Did anybody else take that fruit in his hands? 
Yes. Who? Adam. Because they disobeyed God 
what did they have to do all the rest of their life? They 
had to work." We may also teach the children how the 
act of Adam and Eve was sin; how sin came into the 
world ; how sin curses and ruins men. 

Pursuing the same lesson, we may say : "Children, I 
want you all to raise your hands (illustrating) just as if 
you had a club, and were going to strike somebody." 
"Whose hands were raised, and struck a brother with a 
club?" Their own motion has suggested the answer. 
They answer: "Cain". "What happened to the brother?" 
"He was killed." "What name would you give to that 
sin?" "Murder." "Which of the Ten Commandments 
forbids murder?" and so on. 

You want to test, or to refresh, the children's knowl- 
edge concerning Noah and the ark. You can say : "Chil- 
dren, I want you to use your hands (illustrating) as if 
you had a hammer in your right hand, and were striking 
a nail held by the left hand." "Children, somebody drove 
some nails,. and made a big boat, — who was it?" "Noah," 



198 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

"Who told him to make a boat?" "The Lord." "What 
did he make a boat for?" "What was done with the 
boat when it was made?" "What happened to the people 
that did not get into the boat?" "Why were they drown- 
ed?" and so on. 

Suppose the lesson to be on prayer. "Children, 
please clasp your hands thus — (illustrating). Whose 
hands were clasped in prayer six times, asking God to 
have mercy? "Who lived in that city that Abraham 
loved?" (Answer). Did God hear "Abraham's pray- 
er?" "How did He answer it?" "Does He hear and 
answer our prayers?" and so on. 

Then, passing to the destruction of Sodom, you may 
ask the children to take hold of hands — join hands with 
each other. They all clasp each other's hands. "Who 
was it that went down to a city because the people didn't 
hurry fast enough, and had to take hold of their hands 
and hurry them?" "When you are in any bad place — 
anywhere you ought not to be — should you hurry away?" 
"Does not the Lord tell you to come away from every bad 
place and from every bad practice?" "You say, 'Yes'; 
now will you all do it?" 

There are many passages of Scripture; many inci- 
dents of the Bible, many things in the International Sun- 
day-school lessons, which suggest all these varieties of 
helpful object-teaching, and others that I have not time 
to mention, as by 

Ornamented Texts and Cards, 
Maps and Charts, 
Pictures, Drawings, etc. 

But, in some way make the truth plain, make it to be 
seen. Then it will be felt — then it will be remembered — 
will become the inspiration, the Joy, the glory of the life. 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 199 

PERSONAL PREPARATION IN SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK 

There is danger that while the lesson is well prepared, 
the teacher may not be. The prominence which is given to 
aids of every sort may divert attention from the Word 
and its spiritual import. In the presence of so much 
material the moral preparation of the teacher may be 
overshadowed. He may neglect to assimilate the lesson 
and make its truths a part of his own personality. He 
will thus fail effectively to apprehend theni, grasp them, 
and apply them. 

Too much stress cannot be laid upon personal prepa- 
ration. We may have everything else in our schools, but 
lacking this subtle personal quality our teaching will lack 
power and impressiveness. The end to be accomplished 
in teaching is to influence the lives of our scholars by 
bringing the Word of God to bear upon their hearts. In 
securing that result, the teacher is the mediator. He 
stands midway between the Word and the class. If he is 
personally prepared he will be a good conductor; he will 
draw down to their souls the saving power of truth. A 
teacher who is not in personal touch with God carries to 
his class no heart-molding and life-fashioning efficiency. 

Let no one suppose that efficient teaching requires no 
effort. Any one who so thinks does not know what teach- 
ing is. To prepare a lesson with even intellectual thor- 
oughness is a great task. Take a single verse of the 
lesson — its story, its history, geography, chronology, con- 
text, sidelights from Scripture and nature, doctrinal and 
practical lessons. To have these in hand one needs to 
be at once a scholar, historian, exegete, theologian, and 
philosopher. But had one all this literary preparation, 
his qualification to teach is only begun. He has before 
him a class all different from each other in thought, feel- 



200 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

ing, character and circumstance. To that class he is not 
ready to go until he has mastered the lesson for each one 
of them individually. Here come in genius, wisdom, in- 
sight, skill, personal piety and sanctified tact. Espe- 
cially do we now see the need of heart preparation. With- 
out this the teacher will not discern the varied truths of 
God's word, and be able to suit them tenderly and patient- 
ly to all that variety of condition, capacity and need 
which he finds represented in his class. We suggest a 
few helps in personal preparation : 

1. Keep close to the text. A lesson for the hour is 
put into our hands. That lesson is from God's word. Let 
us honor it by using it. The foundation of our best prep- 
aration to teach is to be the careful, prayerful, prolonged 
contemplation of the very words of the lesson. Then use 
whatever helps are available — the more the better, but 
subordinate them to the text. Make wide excursions into 
history, geography and illustration, but return to the text 
with all the explanatory and practically helpful informa- 
tion. As bees fly wide and visit many flowers, but 
always bring the honey to the one hive, so we must bring 
back to the text all that we elsewhere acquire to enrich 
the lesson which the Master has called us to teach. 

Come before your class with the Bible only in hand. 
Let nothing appear between you and it. Let the class 
bring the Bible and nothing but the Bible. Most of 
classes and teachers use no Bible during the lesson. They 
read the lesson from the leaf, comment on it, ask and an- 
swer questions only from the leaf. In a double sense too 
many Sunday-schools have in them "nothing but leaves!" 

I said, first, Keep close to the Bible. I suggest — 
second, Keep close to your class. Each member of it 
is mentally different from the other. The greatest edu- 
cators have attributed their success to recognizing the 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 201 

individual in teaching. In conveying moral instruction 
this principle becomes doubly important. Every one of 
a Sunday-school class may be different from every other 
in parentage, temperament, disposition, home-training, 
feeling, thought, etc. More than that, they may be them- 
selves constantly changing — by change of surroundings, 
or by the law of evil or good unfoldings. Now, if it is our 
purpose to touch, and guide and save them, we must know 
just where they are now, what they are thinking, feeling, 
experiencing without and within. Just as a general ad- 
vancing into a hostile country needs to know "the lay of 
the land," so needs the teacher to know, intellectually and 
by tenderest moral sensibilities, all these things about his 
pupils. As with the general with his army, if we know 
our pupils' lives, and hearts, and feelings, to what advan- 
tage we can work; what advances, retreats, raids, flank 
movements of every sort we may make. The skeptical 
question asked by one, we can pass by. Another pupil 
makes the same inquiry, and we meet it squarely. This 
truth, in this lesson, put in this way, is for that scholar ; 
put it in another way it will reach a second. Another 
truth is just what a third needs. But how are we to 
know all this, and how can we be personally prepared to 
meet our classes unless we know them, keep close to them, 
follow them up, and experience a soul-longing for success 
in helping, making of them true men and women — saving 
them? 

It is a mistake to suppose that moral crises come only 
infrequently in the lives of young people. It is not so. 
Great crises may come infrequently, but all time in a 
young life is critical time. Against a young life Satan 
is always plotting; for it, the Spirit always pleads. 
Whether on any day a soul be saved or lost, drawn nearer 
to or drawn farther from the kingdom, will depend on 



202 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

how wisely and skilfully we can touch that soul with the 
saving truth which God puts into our hand. And we 
shall be prepared personally for this work only as with 
well-digested lessons we keep spiritually close to our class. 

3. Keep close to God. If we be not in sympathy 
with God, if His Spirit be not in us, how can we match 
the spiritual truth of the lesson to the spiritual nature 
of the pupil ? We shall not see what is in the lesson — in 
what God says — unless we dwell with God. The word 
of God is deep. We draw according to the length of our 
line. As one who speaks by long-distance telephone, if 
we live in touch with Jesus, our souls shall hear from far 
things sweet and deep which others cannot hear — which 
we shall not hear unless we live near the divine heart. 

And it is just as true in the matter of making the ap- 
plication. It is the loving spirit which dwells in Christ 
that discerns the thoughts and intents of the pupil's heart, 
sees its depths, intricacies and obscurities, but through 
all a shining way, in which with certainty the Spirit may 
tread. 

Here, also, is the deep, untiring, Christ-like impulse 
which marks the best teachers, by which they cling to their 
scholars, bear them in their hearts, and will not let them 
go. The passion for souls is kindled by our own com- 
munion and joy. 

Hence, also, is that serene confidence, that joyous 
faith which nothing can daunt. That is the spirit in 
which men lead men. But that spirit we shall not find, 
save as in loving faith we wait upon the Lord. This is 
the very essence and power of personal preparation, that 
we keep close to God. It carries with it, sooner or later, 
everything else. 

Finally, there is a preparation of which we do not 
often think. This preparation may prove to be more 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 203 

important than all the rest. It is the constant, uncon- 
scious preparation of daily conduct. 

We may come to our class fresh from the Word and 
the closet ; we may speak forcibly, earnestly, lovingly, and 
yet may fail. What kind of a life have we been living? 
What is our daily conduct? What do the children see of 
us on the street, in our homes, in the daily affairs of life, 
in all our personal habits? What do they hear of us in 
our daily conversation — in the purity, dignity, consis- 
tency of our speech ; or in our frivolity and the foul stories 
we tell? In short, what is our character? Back of us 
when we go to our pupils is what we have been. For 
good or bad our works follow us when we attempt to teach. 
They speak louder than our words. They mock us in 
the face of our class, or enforce the lessons we teach. 
Nothing can teach like example. Only as we live in daily 
life before our pupils, kindly, honestly, nobly, can we 
touch and shape their lives. 

O O O 

POPULAR ERRORS OF SPEECH 

Institute Paper 

Writing and speaking is a large part of the work of 
every minister of the gospel. A preacher should there- 
fore aspire to the mastery of good English. One may, 
however, be accurate in sentence-making but lack in the 
graces of diction. The flexibility of our language is un- 
equaled, and its excellences are many-sided. In these 
there is scope for every variety of literary and oratorical 
merit. However, in the phraseology of our tongue and 
the style of written or oral deliverance, there is one weak- 
ness that is never tolerated, That weakness is faulty 



204 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

English. Though no man may become perfect in his 
style of composition, or eminent in oratory, his grammar 
may rise above criticism. 

And jet the force and effect of language do not lie 
in its embellishments nor in the graces of delivery. A 
style may be awkward and rugged while it conforms to 
every rule of grammatical correctness. Sincerity and en- 
thusiasm may in considerable measure compensate for the 
absence of oratorical excellence. The rules of correct 
writing and speaking may be so formally and rigidly ap- 
plied that the most accurate utterance commands no hear- 
ing. Here, as in the moral realm, the letter may kill and 
the spirit only have the power of life. Hearers are rarely 
offended at the mere absence of flowers in the minister's 
linguistic field. It is had English, and fruitless, force 
less phrases that tire an audience and become intolerable 
to their intelligence. 

Many otherwise good sermons are marred by awk- 
ward and inaccurate language. A fairly good facility in 
the use of English should be acquired by every aspirant 
to the pulpit. On this point examining boards of confer- 
ences should be courteously but firmly exacting. 

It is surprising that so much grammatical superficial- 
ity goes out from our high schools and colleges. This is 
largely due to indifferent pupils, incompetent teachers, 
and defective methods. Rules and definitions are mem- 
orized merely for the recitation hour. They are not mas- 
tered; they are not engrafted upon the pupil's every-day 
habits of speech. They should have become so proficient 
in analysis and parsing that by eye and ear they could at 
once detect all palpable errors in composition and in 
every-day conversation. Such thoroughness of instruc- 
tion is a most wholesome part of a pupil's education. It 
disciplines the mind and facilitates the most correct and 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 205 

effective expression of thought. Especially should it be 
the ambition of every preacher of the gospel to make him- 
self an example and a help to the children and youth of 
his parish in the correct use of their own tongue. To this 
end the preacher should acquire a ready ability to write 
and speak, if not with elegance, at any rate with a due 
regard to grammatical accuracy. 

Holding this opinion, I have accepted the subject 
assigned to me on this morning's program. In my prep- 
aration I have collected numerous examples of faulty 
diction. These are mainly from observation. Some of 
them are from authors upon this and kindred subjects. 
Most of these gathered examples are localisms, provincial- 
isms, Americanisms, etc., to coin a new word, pulpitisms. 
Fellow-ministers have therefore contributed to the cata- 
logue. But as I am to call attention to mistakes, and 
not to those who made them, I shall indulge in no person- 
alities. But should any brother discover that he has 
lent to the illustrations of this paper, I trust that he will 
be glad that his mistakes can be put to a good use. Nor 
would J spare, or have you spare, my own blunders while 
availing myself of those of others. I ask to be criticised 
as well as to be permitted to help others to accuracies 
that may add to the greater usefulness of us all. 

I will number the strictures here given, so that you 
may easily make a note of anything herein to which you 
would subsequently call attention. By simply noting the 
number you can call up the criticism afterwards. 

1. In commencing a sermon, vary your language in 
citing the book, chapter and verse of your text. Do not 
wear threadbare the expression, "Brethren, you will find 
my text," etc. Study variety, propriety, appropriateness 
and impressiveness of introduction. 

2. Avoid all mannerism ; all stiffness, unnaturalness, 



206 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

immodesty of posture. Let your gestures be few, and 
they appropriate, graceful, easy. Do not supply your 
pauses, or follow mental hesitations with " — eh," " — ah," 
" — and ah." Do not introduce a sentence, proposition, 
or new division with: "And now;" "And now then;" 
"Now, then, brethren." These expletives and superflui- 
ties betray ill-preparation, illiteracy, lack of refinement. 
An attempt to follow these desultory, ill-prepared sermons 
is but a trip through the woods — an aimless ramble amid 
briers and underbrush. 

3. Do not clip your words. The ellipsis of one or 
more necessary words of a sentence is a frequent fault; 

as, " pray thee, Lord, come and bless us to-night ;" 

"Hope you all try to be here to-morrow ;" "Breth- 
ren, improve every day and hour." Say, "every day and 
every hour." 

4. In pulpit style, and other serious prose, aphaere- 
sis is not- ordinarily allowed. This is cutting off a letter 
or a syllable from the beginning of a word ; as, "'bove" for 
"above;" "'gainst," for "against;" "'tis." for "it is." 
Emerson, to be sure, said 'Tis, in very colloquial moments. 
In explanation he said that the masters of English were 
trying to drop the expression, 'tis, but that it still had for 
him a sort of archaic charm. 

5. Avoid obsolete forms of words; as, I have now 
'proven' my first proposition." Say, "I have now prov- 
ed," etc, not "proven." "Proven" is an old Scottish form 
of the imperfect tense of the verb prove. Webster and 
Worcester do not justify its use. The Standard gives it 
as a second form of the past tense. Lawyers, clergymen 
and editors are not reliable, as a rule, in the matter of 
pure diction. 

6. Do not use "Has came'' for "Has come/' as, 
"Brethren, our brother has came to help us in this meet- 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 207 

ing." Whenever the verb came is preceded by an auxil- 
iary, its form necessarily changes to come; as, "I came to 
church; I have come to church." The tense forms would 
be : "He comes, he came, he has come." 

7. Do not say, "Elder Jones has went to conference. 
Say, "Has gone to conference." 

8. Do not say, "The Lord has greatly blest you and 

I." How can the Lord bless I? Say, " has blest 

you and me." Always distinguish between a pronoun in 
the nominative case and one in the objective. 

8. Do not fall into the common error of using as 
instead of the conjunction that. For example, "I do not 
know as I can help you in your meeting." Say, "I do 
not know that I can help you," etc. 

9. Do not violate a rule in all grammars, which 
teaches us that the verb to be and its inflections may have 
the same case after them as before them. Therefore do not 
say : "It was him that spoke so eloquently at our confer- 
ence." Say, "It was he" etc. Do not say, "I took that 
preacher to be he that I saw at the convention." Say, 
"I took that preacher to be him" etc. The noun preach- 
er being in the objective case before the verb to be, the pro- 
noun following that verb must also be in the objective. 

10. There is a pulpit localism in a certain confer- 
ence that leads several of its preachers to say, for exam- 
ple: "On the account of diphtheria there will be no serv- 
ice here next Sunday." Say, "On account of," etc. 

11. Never pronounce a word of one syllable as if it 
had two syllables; as, "He sat under the el-am tree," in- 
stead of the elm tree ; "I heard the Rev. Jo-ens" instead of 

" the Rev. Jones; "I have knoion that brother five 

years," instead of, "I have known that brother," etc. 
Avoid this careless, serious error. Don't say, "He done 
it" for "He did it." Don't pronounce creek "crick." 



208 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

12. Do not drop the final consonant sounds of a 
word ; as, Chris' for Christ. "This is righ' in the sight of 
God," instead of, "This is right/' etc. 

13. Do not drop vowel sounds. There is scarcely 
anything which more distinguishes a person of poor edu- 
cation from a person of a good one, than the pronuncia- 
tion of the commonly unaccented vowels. In philology, 
so small a matter as knocking an eye out of a word, is 
murder of the English language. When a vowel re- 
quires to be accented, give it a distinct, open, specific 
sound; as for Lat'n say Latin; for sat'n say satin; for 
Sat'n say Satan; for curt'n say curtain; for cert'n say 
certain; for mod'l say model; for ment'l say mental; for 
fat'l say fatal ; for grav'l say gravel ; for trav'l say travel ; 
for sudd'n say sudden; for infid'l say infidel; for scroop- 
lous say scru-pu-lous. 

14. Avoid also the opposite error of sounding a 
vowel where it should be silent; as, instead of heav-en, 
say heav'n; for gar-den, say gard'n; for evil, say ev'l; 
for dev-il, say dev'l. There are numerous instances in 
both vowel and consonant sounds, in which many public 
speakers betray carelessness — literary slovenliness. 

15. Do not form the habit of giving, indiscriminate- 
ly, a sliding or falling inflection to the final word or syl- 
lable of a sentence; as, "His foundation is in the holy 
mountains." "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more 
than all the dwellings of Jacob." "The Lord loveth a 
cheerful giver." Where an emphatic word falls near 
the close of a sentence the final accent is of course modi- 
fied ; as in Acts 25 : 14, 15. 

16. Do not say, "I will try and preach to-night." 
You might try and yet not preach. But the expression, 
"Try and preach," declares that you will both try and 
preach. Say, "I will try to preach." Never say, "I 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 209 

will try and do it;" "I will try and go;" "I will try and 
be there." 

17. Avoid errors in the tense of your verbs ; as, "He 
begun his sermon at eleven o'clock." Say, "He began," 
etc. Say not "He done well," for "He did well." A 
prominent attorney in this county always says: "He has 
di(J it," "You have did it," "I seen him do it," etc. Do not 
say, "I intended to have preached last night." Say, "I 
intended to preach." 

18. Do not wrongly use though for if; as, "It seems 
as though he has neglected his studies." Say, "It seems 
as if," etc. Though and if in all such instances have 
very different etymological meanings. 

19. Do not say : "I was so wearied that I couldn't 
hardly preach." Instead of the double negative, say, 
"I could hardly preach;" i. e., "I could preach, but 
hardly — with great effort. Double negatives neutralize 
each other, and are equivalent to saying nothing ; that is, 
they are equivalent to an affirmative when a negative is 
meant. 

20. Be careful to distinguish between farther and 
further, words used interchangeably and indiscriminately 
by many speakers. Apply farther, from the verb far, to 
distance; as it is farther to Springfield than to Troy. 
Further is used in the sense of something to come; as, 
"In the further elucidation of this Scripture, I will say," 
etc. 

21. Do not say, "Have you tasted of the sweets of 
Christian experience. Say, "Have you tasted the 
sweets," etc. Eat and taste are in John sixth, and most 
other places, translated with reference to the correct usage 
and relations of the two words. 

22. Do not say, "I love all my brothers in the minis- 
try." Say, "All my brethren," etc. Brothers is used for 



210 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

male children of the same parents ; brethren is now used 
only for members of a religious or charitable body. 

23. Do not say, "It is supposed that Jesus was relat- 
ed to James and John." Say, " was a relative of, 

or akin to," etc. The word relative is much better than 
relation to express kinship. Kin and kindred are old 
English words that deserve to be more in fashion than 
they are. 

24. Do not use less for fewer; as, "There were not 

less than fifty clergymen at the conference." Say, " 

not fewer," etc. Less applies to quantity ; fewer to num- 
ber. 

25. Avoid pet words and phrases, whether they are 
individual, provincial, or national in their character. 

(a) Avoid stereotyped beginnings and endings of 
prayers and of social meeting talks. 

(b) Do not often use trite expressions, and words 
worn out by frequent repetition ; as, "the staff of life," 
"gave up the ship," "bold as a lion," "lords of creation." 
"the rose upon her cheek," "threw cold water upon," "the 
weaker sex," "in the arms of Morpheus," "shuffle off this 
mortal coil," "fell like a wet blanket," etc. 

(c) Shun antiquated words; as, perad venture, per- 
chance, anon, behest, quoth, erewhile. Occasionally, 
however, these may be used with good taste. 

(d) Indulge in no slang. Command a vocabulary 
so full and rich as to be equal to all occasions, and to 
every variety and subject and thought. 

26. Avoid such frequently-heard provincialisms as, 
"I expect he will come." Say, "I suspect," etc., or, "I 
suppose he will come. 

27. Do not say, "I calculate to preach to-morrow." 
Better say, "I intend," or, "I purpose," etc. 

28. For "I reckon I shall fail;" "I guess that Bro. 



SERMONS ADDRESSES ESSAYS 211 

Smith will succeed/' say, "I suspect, or think I shall 
fail/ 9 or that Smith will succeed. 

29. Usage does not fully determine what expression 
to use when one is addressed and fails to understand just 
what is said. In such cases you hear the rejoinders, 
"What?" "What say?" "How?" "Which?" "Hey?" "Sir," 
"Madam," "Ma'am," once common, are largely out of taste 
and good usage, and are not heard in the most refined 
society in many cities and in many parts of the country. 
The English expression, "Beg pardon," has found favor, 
but is not wholly accepted. "Excuse me," is suggested, 
and is frequently used. We seem at the present to be 
compelled to take choice between the expressions, "Beg 
pardon," and "Excuse me." 

30. Never weaken a sentence by a redundancy of 
words or by a series of synonyms ; as, "We have assembled 
and come together to-night to worship thee." Avoid the 
tautology of saying, "We have assembled, and come togeth- 
er." Another brother prays: "Come thou and aid and 
assist us to wait upon thee." Help and assist having 
precisely the same meaning, the wording of the prayer is 
weakened by the use of both terms. 

31. Do not use love for like; as, "I love cherries ; "J 
love apple pie." It is well to love your wife, and to love 
the Lord, but you do not mean to express an equal affec- 
tion for a dish of fruit or a piece of pie. Say you like 
cherries, you like pie, but that you love wife, mother, the 
Lord, etc. 

32. Never say, "Brethren, raise your children to be 
Christians," but say, "rear, or bring up your children," 
etc. We raise cattle, horses, and swine, but we rear 
children, or bring up children. 

33. Do not use partially for partly ; as, "His quota- 
tions » of Scripture were partially correct. Partially 



212 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

means one-sided, with bias. Partly means not wholly, in 
part only. In some cases these two words are used inter- 
changeably. 

34. Say not, "That preacher is well posted in sacred 
history." Say, "Well informed," etc. 

35. The definite article the, or, as I would prefer to 
term it, the definitive adjective the, should be used before 
titulary adjectives, as Reverend, Honorable. Say, "The 
Rev. Dr. Craig, the Honorable Justice Harlain, and not 
Rev. Dr. Craig, Hon. Justice Harlain. A few authorities 
justify the latter form of title on the ground of extensive 
usage. 

36. I have already said that the neuter verb has the 
same case after it as before it. It must be remembered, 
too, that the imperative mood requires the objective case 
after it. Our Bible translators have often overlooked 
this invariable law of good English, as in Psalm 98 : 7 : 
"Let the sea roar, and the fulness; the world, and they 
(them) that dwell therein." It should read: "Let them." 
You cannot let they. 

37. Never say, "Was you at the meeting?" Say, 
"Were you?" Always associate a plural verb with the 
pronoun you. 

38. Never pronounce ordeal ordeal. No lexi- 
cographer so pronounces it. 

39. You have frequent occasion as a clergyman to 
speak of different fevers. Never say typhoid fever; but 
always £i/-phoid, with accent on first syllable; and for 
laryn-ge-tus say laryngitis. For bron-che-tus say bron- 
chi-tis. For homeopathy say home-o-pathy. For alo- 
pathy say a-lop-o-thy. 

40. Do not say, "He preaches some better now than 
at the time he was ordained." Here you use the adjective 
some in an adverbial sense. Therefore say, somewhat 



SERMONS — ADDRESSES — ESSAYS 213 

better and not some better. Somewhat is an adverb and 
qualifies the adjective better. Avoid the frequent mis- 
take of qualifying an adjective with an adjective. 

41. When the objective case is separated by a clause 
from the governing word, the nominative case is liable to 
be used for the objective case ; as, "Ee that is suspicious of 
others we are apt to suspect." Ee should be him because 
it is the object of the verb suspect. You cannot say, "Sus- 
pect he." See Metcalf, page 252. Rule 19, page 173. 

42. What is sometimes improperly substituted for 
the conjunction that; as, "I do not know but what it will 
rain before night." Burns' large gram., page 173. 

These precautions to pare English might be contin- 
ued indefinitely. In conclusion, every young minister of 
to-day should be able to speak and write clear English 
sentences. Every written sentence should be correct in 
structure, concise in meaning, and faultless in spelling 
and punctuation. 

Young men preparing for the ministry, and those 
taking conference courses of reading, should receive care- 
ful instruction in branches that will be of most practical 
and frequent use in the minister's calling. They should 
therefore be carefully taught and drilled in orthography 
and pronunciation, punctuation, sentence making, and in 
enlargement of their vocabulary ; also in writing business 
letters and polite notes; in parliamentary usage and in 
the keeping of business minutes ; in making notes of ser- 
mons and addresses; in the avoidance of slang and in 
complete freedom from commonplace and incorrect forms 
of speech. 

To-day, as never before, the people have an enlight- 
ened appreciation of pure, pointed, racy, musical English ; 
and never before has it been so important that the preach- 
er have an intelligent and practical mastery of his mother 



214 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

tongue. I would have every Christian conference in Ohio 
hang over its pulpit, in imagination at least, "Pure Eng- 
lish used here," — pure English by pure-minded,, pure- 
hearted, pure-lived ministers. 



O O O 



GEMS FROM MINES OF TRUTH 



Extracts from Sermons by Rev. H. Y. Rush 



Sin is a mire that will entrap and draw down the 
strongest feet. 

Sinner in the mire of evil habit, stretch out your 
hand to the Merciful Deliverer. He will bring you up 
out of the horrible pit of despair, place your feet upon 
the Rock and give you a place in the great choir of the 
redeemed. 



Lazarus' return to life teaches the heavenliness of 
human loves. He came back to love his sisters, his 
friends, all social and festive life. 



The fact that God has founded a church on earth 
teaches us that He wants His people in it. 

The church is the spiritual home of God's people. 



As we make the journey of life there moves that in- 
visible pen which records our deeds, our words, our 
thoughts. At the close of life's journey that record will 



EXTRACTS FROM SERMONS 215 

be shown us, for the books shall be opened, and the mind 
shall be quickened into wondrous power of recollection. 



True manhood is shown, not in never making a mis- 
take, but in rising above it after it is made. 

Do not let the blunders of the past crush you ; rectify 
them as best you can and go forward. 

Forget the wrongs you have received in the past. If 
some one has injured you by word or deed, make an effort 
to forget it. It will make you unhappy and prevent you 
in all spiritual growth to brood over such injuries. 

Press onward more vigorously than ever. Keach 
forth for the "prize of your high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." 

***** 

The heart of man beats in the story of the Prodigal 
Son, but the heart of God pulsates in the parable of the 
Lost Sheep, for He seeks until He finds it. 



Paul didn't expect to be a Christian without having 
something to do. His earnest inquiry was, "Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do." 



When Blonden walked the tight rope across Niagara 
Falls, he placed on the opposite side of the river a bright 
star which might be seen from the other shore. During 
the entire walk Blonden kept his eyes fixed on that star. 

No one can walk straight or safely without some ob- 
ject or point before him as a guide. 

The sailor understands this, and by the North Star he 
directs his course, 



216 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Suppose many time pieces in your town are wrong. 
You say yours is right, others set by it. If yours is wrong 
you set the whole town wrong. 

***** 

Through the gateway of history we often come into 

fields of richest information and most needful moral 

teaching. 

***** 

If you ever yield to Satan a foot of the Lord's ground 
he'll take the whole field. 



Salvation may come through faith, through a look, 
through a touch, through a word. It must come through 
Christ. Salvation does not come through any particular 
church or creed. 



The Christian blacksmith has a holy calling. The 
ring of his hammer is as musical to God as an angel's 
harp, and his smoky shanty may be a vestibule of heaven. 

So every Christian man's business may be made a 
voice proclaiming the law of his Maker. 

***** 

God may be seen in the leaf, in grass, in field, in the 
glory of the sun, and in the starry grandeur of night. 

***** 

The sorrowful remembrance of the dead has its use- 
ful ends. The dews of sad though sweet remembrance 
keep the heart soft and tender. 

***** 

It is a warm heart rather than a great head that does 
society most good. 



EXTRACTS PROM SERMONS 217 

Some form of man's departure from this earth seems 
as natural as the falling of a leaf when touched by the 
autumn frost. "We all do fade as a leaf." 

The falling of the leaf is necessary to its existence in 
a changed and higher form of life. 

The leaf on the tree has become all it can in the au- 
tumn, it falls, it decays, it sinks out of sight, it becomes 
a part of the soil, but it may come forth again in the 
form of a rare plant, a fragrant flower, or some kind of 
luscious fruit. 

« # * * * 

Every act a man does becomes a tendency behind 
him to bear him forward as by a resistless surge. 

Every habit of his life strengthens the chain that 
binds him to sin. 

* * ♦ # * 

We should be thankful that our Pilgrim Fathers were 
men of piety. Before leaving the north of England, and 
the coast of Holland they knelt in prayer. On setting 
foot upon Plymouth Rock they knelt in prayer and 
thanksgiving. 

***** 

Soldiers in the late war took their hardships and in- 
conveniences cheerfully. When asked, "What are you 
eating those green persimmons for?" the reply was, "To 
pucker my mouth to the size of my rations." 

In writing a letter to the girl he left behind him, a 
soldier boy wrote, "No steel pen in camp, write this with 
a goose quill, which is all that is left of the goose." 

# * * * * 

Any man can walk into a library, but what he finds 
there will depend upon his own mental development. 

Any man can walk into an art gallery where hang 



218 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

many fine paintings and rare specimens of art, but what 
he will see there will depend upon his artistic taste and 
ability to appreciate works of art. 



Eeligion is elevating and cheering only when we see 
God in His true character, i. e., as a Father and a Friend. 

* * ♦ * • 

The Israelites were turned back. A new generation 
was needed. God could not make those adults over 
morally. He had to begin with childhood. 

* * * * * 

Godliness induces tranquility of mind and soul, casts 
out fear, jealousies and anger, which consumes vitality. 
It gives love for all, peace with man and God, which pro- 
motes health and long life. 

***** 

When a little girl was asked one night, why she work- 
ed so rapidly, she replied, "Oh, because my candle is 
burning out so fast." So life is fleeting rapidly away. 

***** 

One born of the Spirit has spiritual tastes, lives in a 
spiritual atmosphere, and feeds on spiritual food. 



SONG WAR STORIES — LETTERS 219 



KEIFER LEADS THE VAN 



Regimental Song, 110 0. V. I. 



Tune — Uncle Sam 

Come, Buckeye boys, and let us sing; for now we've shouldered 

arms, 
We've left our wives and sweethearts home, with all their love and 

charms. 
The hills and dales, the old homestead, the lovely scenes of 

youth, — 
We've bid a sad farewell to all, to battle for the truth. 

CHORUS 

Then march along, march along, for Keifer leads the van, 
And Foster he will stick to us as long as there's a man ; 
Then march along, march along, for Binkley's with us too ; 
And he will never square the books till Davis gets his due. 

The traitors first shot down our flag, that o'er proud Sumter stood, 
And reared their filthy rebel rag, all stained with Union blood. 
But Yankee boys can rear again, that Banner of the Free, 
Whose folds shall all be kissed again, with Zephyrs from the sea. 

Chorus — Then march along, &c. 

The rebels they would fain tear down this temple of the Free, 
And build instead their cushion'd homes of aristocracy 
But from this temple not a stone shall ever be removed ; 
For in her halls is justice found, as foreign lands have proved. 

Chorus — Then march along, &c. 

Our country is the best on earth, and bears the fairest name ; 
And she can boast of giving birth to men of deathless fame ; 



220 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

There's Washington whose dauntless deeds still keep his mem'ry 

green, 
And Jackson, too, who whipped John Bull so nice at New Orleans. 

Chorus — Then march along, &c. 

Poor Jeff he thinks he's very sharp, and Yancey boasts of wit : 
But we can whet our tools, my boys, for Yankees have the grit. 
They call us stupid "inud-sills," boys, and other curious names, 
But we have logic in our guns, and more within our brains. 

Chorus — Then march along, &c. 

Ne'er let your hands grow weary, boys, while in this noble cause, 
Till every rebel grounds his arms, submitting to our laws ; — 
Till on a strong palmetto limb, a curious fruit you see — 
Jeff Davis to a strong hemp rope "a-dancing jubilee." 

Chorus — Then march along, &c. 

We now are in that "Dixie land" of which we often sing ; 
And now the music of that song, shall from the musket ring. 
We come with love within our hearts, but lead within our guns, 
With sharp and tickling bayonets, to make the rebels run. 

Chorus — Then march along, &c. 

Come, let us press with vigor on, and crush rebellion down, 
Then union, peace, and plenty all, shall through the land abound. 
Then wives and children left behind, and sweethearts brave and 

true 
Will welcome back the Buckeye boys that put the rebels through. 

Chorus — Then march along, &c. 

Lieut. H. Y. RUSH. 



SONG WAR STORIES — LETTERS 221 

STORIES OF THE WAR 



A Series of Papers Written for and Published in the 
Franklin Ohio "Chronicle" — Incidents and Reminis- 
cences — Deeds of Daring Even to Certain Death — 
How Milroy Cut Through the Rebel Lines. 



First Paper 

Most of the month of June, 1863, was employed by 
Lee in a strategic transfer of his great army into Penn- 
sylvania. This, of course, must be done by different lines 
of march. In this way he hoped to move his full force 
across the Potomac before the Federals could satisfactor- 
ily determine his intentions. In execution of his plans it 
became necessary to clear and to keep open for his going 
and return that historic battle-ground and rich foraging 
field of the war, the Shenandoah Valley. Winchester, 
twenty miles up that valley from Martinsburg and twenty* 
eight miles from Harper's Ferry, was held at the time by 
Gen. Milroy. Under him were some 7,000 troops, strongly 
entrenched, and manning for an emergency two appar- 
ently impregnable forts. Lee must push Milroy out of his 
pathway in order to an unhindered march of other Con- 
federate troops moving northward by the same route. Nor 
was it less important, as the sequel proved, that he have 
no serious hindrance to either an exultant return or a 
humiliating retreat. 

Milroy had had hints that Lee was planning some 
movement that was bold, mysterious and immense. Our 
scouting and reconnoitering parties were day and night in 
their saddles, pushing out upon all roads and all untrav- 
eled ways by which surprise or resistless peril might fall 
upon our isolated army. At last hurrying hoofs arouse 



222 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

the quiet of Headquarters, and the word from mounted 
couriers is, "They come, they come!" Our "boys" were 
ready for them — were anxious for fight — almost impa- 
tient for campaigns to be pushed to successful issue and 
the war thus ended. Nor did they have long to wait for 
their part in the series of great battles that followed 
Winchester, and Gettysburg, and brought to freedom's 
banner brilliant and abiding victory. 

wSaturday morning of June 15th, 1863, was unusually 
hot, and all nature seemed reposing in an ominous hush. 
Everything alive and off duty in camp had sought the 
shade of shanty or tent till the stillness was portentous 
and painful. I can never forget the feeling that something 
terrible was being foreshadowed. Vivid yet in memory is 
my remark to Captain Moor, that what has been called 
"sniffing the battle from afar" was not wholly a fancy, 
but an inexplicable fact. At the time the writer of this 
sketch lay prone in the company officers' tent, continuing 
the study of a favorite chapter in the New Testament. 
Suddenly the "long roll" sounded. Rightly named signal, 
for in that rapid, rattling, continuous drum-beat there 
seemed the hurrying of footman and horse, the rattle of 
light arms, and the mandatory meaning of war. Though 
frequently heard before, it had never sounded just as it 
did that day — so real, so significant, so ominous. In a 
few minutes our regiment — the 110th O. V. I. — was in 
line, earnest, buoyant, and in best of spirit for duty or 
danger. A march from camp into Winchester, and a mile 
south along the Kearnstown pike — Gen. Keifer and Col. 
Binkley in the lead — the regiment was halted and com- 
manded to "load." To the writer no enemy was yet in 
sight. But a quarter of a mile farther forward use was 
found for those freshly loaded and sure-triggered guns. 
A force of rebels had secreted themselves amid some locust 



song — War stories — letters 223 

growths, near to and parallel with the valley pike. The 
thoughtless fellows failed to salute our coming with 
blank cartridges. Their sudden volley emptied several 
saddles and took some fatal and disabling effect among 
the infantry. A slight pause, as if just a little surprised 
at rebel impudence, and we pushed forward. A few hun- 
dred yards farther on it became obvious that we had come 
squarely against business— that a huge contract was upon 
our hands. Rebels to the right of us, rebels to the left of 
us, rebels to the front of us, and rebels behind and far 
beyond all these, rebels. 

Soon all Milroy's forces were engaged at some point 
or other of the general field, but I speak in these articles 
only of the part taken by my own company and regiment. 
As a rule, little more than this can any soldier or line 
officer see of an engagement involving a large number of 
troops and extending over a wide field of varying surface. 

The order was, "Forward," nor did we heed it to 
meet any hidden foe. Long lines of grey were drawn out 
but a short distance before us, and rebels seemed to swarm 
on every swell of field and sweep of valley. No woods, no 
rifle-pits, no artificial defenses stood between foe and foe 
or life and life. In the very face of the near enemy we 
were ordered forward, forward, firing, firing, loading and 
firing as we moved. Passing constantly from right to left, 
to close the ranks broken here and there by missiles of 
death, and speaking now and then an encouraging word, 
the pressed and battle-wearied men were kept in line. 
Seeing that the enemy stood doggedly and endured our 
fire, I wondered, when the white of their eyes was almost 
visible, who was to give back, we or they ! A look up and 
down our entire lines discovered daring in every step, in 
every steady aim and forward-bending form. Nearer and 
nearer we approached the foe ; pouring in volley after vol- 



224 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

ley, while the big guns on a low hill behind us hurled 
grape and canister over our heads into the defiant lines 
which we determined either to destroy or drive from be- 
fore us. See! They waver, they sway backward; they 
suddenly turn about; they break ranks and run! They 
halt at a safer distance in our front ; they face about, and 
are promptly strengthened by reinforcements. More and 
harder work yet awaits us. 



Second Paper 

My last paper left us driving the enemy from their 
stubbornly contested position. Halting at a safer distance 
they re-form and are reinforced. The spirit of our boys 
is dauntless. Loading and firing they again press on to- 
ward the lines of grey. Again the enemy gives way, and 
again their flight is in haste and confusion. A few hun- 
dred yards to our front they again re-form. Fresh troops 
that seemed to rise like locusts from the ground, length- 
ened and deepened their long, strong lines of battle. 
Though some distance in advance of our general line we 
assail our superior numbers again. They press to meet us 
with a fury and a superior force not this time to be with- 
stood. That was impossible. Their bee-swarms of bullets 
and vigorously worked batteries could in thirty minutes 
have blotted out our regiment. Retreat was ordered, and 
it had to be quick and swift to escape capture. A little 
tardiness and the long lines would have swung around us 
their flanks and driven us to the Dixie prisons. From 
the danger our daring could not avert our feet delivered 
us. We "fell back," not in a panic but with a judicious 
speed. For half a mile we sought safety with a Dexter-like 
dexterity. At that distance we made another stand — 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 225 

more in line with troops and defenses beyond which — prob- 
ably for some special purpose — we had been impetuously 
pushed. Milroy's measure of success in these three days' 
battles — as it proved to be — must be by bold, daring, dog- 
ged, defiant conduct before the enemy's vastly superior 
numbers. His instructions from Washington were to hold 
Lee in check till the last possible moment. This must be 
done, so that the bulk of the Potomac army may be passed 
into Pennsylvania in time to meet the converging hosts of 
the Confederacy, defeat them, save Washington — save the 
country. Had Milroy failed for three days successfully to 
fight and hold in check Lee's 30,000 men with his 8,000, it 
is believed that Gettysburg would have been a Confeder- 
ate victory. Not one day sooner could that battle have 
been opened with safety to the Federal side. Counting 
Providence out and speaking humanly, it was Milroy's 
holding Longstreet, Rhodes and Hill and other Rebel corps 
three days in check at Winchester, that delayed Lee's in- 
tended attack and gave Meade time to gather and group 
his forces for this pivotal conflict of the four years' war. 
With this explanatory digression we return to our 
story. After this orderly retreat to more advantageous 
ground, our lines were re-formed. A few somewhat effect- 
ive volleys were here exchanged at Longstreet. The high 
treble of our musketry was soon answered by the deep 
bass of Rebel batteries that had pushed into position on 
our left. Looking in that direction to the high swell of 
ground they occupied, long lines of grey were an evidence 
that the Confederates were aiming ultimately to throw 
around Milroy the cordon of their whole army. Here was 
a large force of Lee's gathering legions not before brought 
into action. Their artillery opened vigorously upon us 
and gave us a raking, enfilading fire. Threatened from the 
front we could not change our flank to escape this danger 



226 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

from the left. Milroy had seen the situation and speedily 
planted some batteries to our right on high ground just 
across the valley pike. Thunder now answered to thunder 
and shot to shot. By and by Milroy discovered a large 
force of the enemy passing from behind a distant hill, 
crossing the pike a mile to the south and making for a 
heavy woods directly to the front of our right flank. Oth- 
ers of our batteries gave these fresh forces attention, 
dropping shell after shell squarely into their dense col- 
umns, at every explosion I could see men lifted literally 
into the air. The hurry of the rebels to get out of the 
range of these guns was proof of their terrible execution. 
The woods were reached and seemed alive with the new 
and fresh force in whose front our regiment soon after- 
ward stood. It is now in the afternoon, no dinner and 
continuous work since morning. As we passed into this 
position the movement was made under a shower of rebel 
shells bursting over and among us. Some of my com 
pany were wounded by fragments of bombs that had 
burst quite a distance over our heads. Our new position 
was in a narrow valley bordering a wide brook. My own 
company was here thrown forward in skirmish line and 
its right platoon had the protection of a low stone fence, 
the left platoon cleared the wall and stood in open expos- 
ure to the woods full of rebels, some three hundred yards 
beyond the brook. The right platoon lay down and 
fired over the wall. The left, which I was then command- 
ing, kept up a continuous fire with nothing to shield them 
from answering volleys. Some apple trees among which 
we stood rained twigs and stems upon us, and the grass 
about our feet fell in long, narrow lines as the rebel bul- 
lets cut quickly through it. The scene and experience 
were too interesting and singular soon to be forgotten. 
The woods were literally alive with Confederates, and 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 227 

sharpshooters were behind numerous scattering trees in 
the open pasture grounds to their point. 

One of these saucy marksmen had ventured annoy- 
ingly near us. Watching for the next appearance of his 
projecting hat brim, my trusty revolver barked the tree 
by his face. He instantly vacated his position and started 
rearward as if upon a race for life. It seems fair to give 
his feet a chance to save him for "fight another day." 
His place at the tree, however, was repossessed by a com- 
rade who hastily tiptoed from a more distant tree. I 
called to George Search, a brave private whose shots were 
usually as sure as his own name might indicate. He 
stepped to a favorable position, and drew a bead at the 
spot where the keen eye of this other rebel was evidently 
aiming at some mounted officer in our rear. The instant 
Search fired he himself dropped his gun, bent forward, 
and exclaimed, "Lieutenant, I'm shot!" "Where?" "In 
the breast or bowels." Instantly he turned pale, and 
trembled as if to fall. I hurriedly opened his vest, drew 
up his garment, and there fell out of his clothing a flat- 
tened minnie ball. It had struck him in the pit of the 
stomach, broken only the skin, and left a blue surround- 
ing as large as one's hand. Though ordered to the rear, 
within an hour Search was again in the ranks. Time 
proved his wound to be more painful and serious than 
anticipated. But for the rest of the afternoon he was a 
more fortunate target — an afternoon of shifting positions, 
firm stands, attacks and counter attacks, of bravery and 
bloodshed, of willing life-offerings for freedom and our 
country's flag. While mention is here made of but the 
experience of and the part taken by a single company or 
regiment, the reader will bear in mind that Milroy's en- 
tire force of infantry, cavalry and artillery were doing 
their part at the most strategic points of the extensive 



228 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

field. Through all this day, not yet closed, with but few 
reverses they held their positions against such odds as 
only by the most stubborn mood of war could check the 
foe or hold outnumbering forces at bay. 

Night now draws on, but fighting continues with 
alternating calm and shower of shell and musket shot. 
But an hour till darkness, and what those sixty minutes 
may have in store, the waning afternoon will soon reveal. 



Third Paper 

My second paper left us in skirmish line along a 
brook, facing sharpshooters and a superior force of rebels 
sheltered by woods. With but slight variations these po- 
sitions were held respectively till dark. Charges were 
made and repulsed at different points of the general line, 
but without any visible advantage to either side. With 
night came clouds of inky darkness, thunder more deafen- 
ing than all the artillery of the bloody day. Amid the 
darkness, at about nine o'clock, our weary, hungry regi- 
ment was relieved, marched a few hundred yards to the 
left and rear, faced toward the Confederates, and halted. 
While standing in this indescribable darkness, the clouds 
lifted all their floodgates. Continuous were the torrents, 
and the roar was unbroken and sublime. Hungry, 
drenched, weary, — blind even to the armed soldier at one's 
side, and deaf to all sounds save echoing thunder and 
emptying clouds, we stood in ignorance of where and how 
we might pass the night. Just at this moment we wit- 
nessed a scene of beauty, sublimity, and of grim meaning 
for the morrow. Beginning at the right of the rebel lines, 
on our left, a rocket ascended high into the dark heavens. 
Rocket after rocket followed at short intervals, until the 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 229 

brilliant signals had described a circle of some four miles 
diameter, of which Winchester and Milroy's army were 
the fated center. This ominous handwriting of encircling 
rockets was easily read against the contrasting back- 
ground of universal darkness. Nor did it need any Daniel 
to interpret it, — nor did we intend that portended defeat 
should carry with it into history the least shadow of the 
night on whose overarching blackness those rockets flashed 
the forecast of the conflict. 

We still stand silent in the darkness and the down- 
pouring rain, and under the zigzag paths of fire that flash 
athwart the blackness above. Distance and direction 
seem wholly undefined, and one may not know whether 
the groan off yonder in the darkness is from one who 
wishes he might die under the soothing hand of wife or 
mother in the north, or breathe out his spirit within the 
circle of loved ones in the south. Though yet in ranks, in 
water and mud, more gnawed by hunger than annoyed by 
the elements, no murmur is heard. And yet we begin to 
wonder whether, — but listen! A command comes down 
the lines. Attention; shoulder, arms; right, face; for- 
ward, by the right flank, march !" 

"Thank Heaven," exclaimed some one in the dark- 
ness at my side, "that means camp, tents, 4iot coffee and 
a few hours' rest." And so it proved. He was correct — 
he was a good prophet, though not devout nor specially 
inspired. 

Did our hearts sink within us during those long and 
uncertain hours of darkness and drenching rain? No. 
Providentially there is always among masses of men some 
wit or wag who is the sure medicine for misery and a 
panacea for despair. We had that man. His humor was 
spontaneous, irrepressible, contagious. It held melan- 
choly at bay, and with hound of hilarity chased the "blue 



230 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

devils" back to their abode of blackness. In the old days 
of slavery I have seen hundreds of black men and women 
on their march to market and the auction, but laughter 
rang out where whips cracked and manacles clanked. 
Mirth is a good angel of mercy, and walks with us on the 
way of life till met by comforters more suited to the jour- 
ney's close. 

Well, there was with us that night our yet living reg- 
iment clown — the man whose jokes were electric, and took 
instantaneous and irresistible effect. They instantly 
broadened the longest, saddest, sourest face ; they expand- 
ed the poorest and most pinchy sides, and would have 
exploded a Puritan's mirth in the very middle of meeting. 
So soon as he expressed his drollery it sent down the march- 
ing line a ringing laugh that lifted home-sickness and put 
spring into the lagging step. His name was Ben Fry. 
His home is in Darke County. "Ben" was a rough ashler, 
but his immense bulk was mainly Parian marble. "Ben" 
was patriotic, and has given post bellum proof of his zeal 
to perpetuate the Union which he helped preserve. Thir- 
teen boys, born since the war, give animation and interest 
to the paternal domicile, and it will be a cold day for 
Chili when she shakes her fist in the face of Ben's still 
multiplying brigade. 

The stormy night is past. A weary battle-depleted 
regiment has been refreshed with sleep. Cloudless, bright, 
excessively hot, comes on the morning. Breakfast over, 
the drum-beat brought every company again into line. 
But fatalities of the preceding day had told sadly upon 
our ranks. The roll was called, but silence was the sol- 
emn answer to many a name. The regiment was formed 
to march over hill, ravine and narrow valley to a long, 
strong line of previously constructed earthworks a mile to 
the west of our camp. These works had been built in an- 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 231 

ticipation of just such an exigency as was now upon us. 
This was a singular Sunday. Its ritual was the rites of 
war and its ceremonial was of clashing arms. Its double 
choir-gallery was a vast circle of inner and outer hills, 
these crowned with our own cannon, and those with an- 
swering artillery of the enemy. We were literally be- 
sieged, surrounded, shut in — the door bolted. It was but 
a question of a few hours when all must be prisoners, or 
when by dint of daring a remnant of the living may cut 
through a six-fold force and escape. All through the long, 
hot Sunday our troops were engaged at some point or all 
points around our rim-shaped line of battle. The artillery 
of the main and central forts, near our camp, and pieces 
pushed out nearer the enemy, did effective service. Their 
shells disabled batteries and scattered to their death at- 
tendant gunners. Off yonder in the city suburbs, and in 
costly mansions beyond, would drop exploding bombs and 
drive out rebels like rats from burning barns. Here and 
there went up smoke and flame that told how relentless 
was war when mansions of luxury, adornments of art, or 
even human life, defied its imperious tread. Even the 
cemetery, with its gleam of marble and glory of evergreen, 
was possessed by the enemy, and its monuments to the 
dead made defenses of the living. But merciless shells 
mocked at their misuse, and struck with shattering force 
these slabs and shafts. Over and within this city of the 
dead bursting bombs blended into a peal to be transcended 
only by the archangel's trumps. Gilmore's Centennial 
anvil-chorus bore sorry comparison to this anthem of 
duelling artillery. About noon of that day, and during a 
lull at our part of line, I returned hurriedly to our camp 
to secure some medicine for a sick member of my company. 
I found that the rebels were shelling our hospital, as well 
as our works to its front and rear. Several balls had 



232 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

already penetrated the hospital roof. No regard was paid 
to the high-floating yellow flag, by which they knew they 
were violating the usages of war and endangering onr 
sick and wounded. These were then, therefore, removed 
to the cellar. To enter the dispensary for medicine seem- 
ed as dangerous as to climb a bastion or poke one's head 
into a port-hole. But there stood the faithful hospital 
steward, ready to dispense the quinine and the anaesthetic. 
Passing through the camp, on return, a shell had fallen 
upon the well-tramped ground. Still rolling, it attracted 
the attention of a favorite and playful dog of our camp. 
He ran after the missile, clasped it with his jaws 
and was instantly blown to pieces by its explosion. Pass- 
ing on, my coarse lay near an open shed, supported by 
four corner posts. Under it sat Mrs. Cotterell, the wife of 
my company wagon-master. She had arrived on a visit 
to her husband a few days before. She sat under this 
open shed with her babe in her arms. As it stood directly 
in front of our main fort, rebel shells were bursting over 
and about it. To the question, "Are you not afraid to re- 
main here?" came the answer, "I find no other shade, and 
I s'pose I'm as safe here as anywhere." Just then the 
babe turned its face to her and smiled, as if in approval 
of the mother's opinion. The mother endured her cap- 
tivity but the infant was buried at Eichmond. 

Resuming my way, after a few steps I instinctively 
drew back, so near and so numerous were the exploding 
shells. Stepping alternately to the right and to the left, 
as hiss and whiz and bluish-white lines located the paths 
of the on-coming missiles, it was soon apparent that dodg- 
ing was as dangerous as standing still. So halting for a 
time and lifting my field-glass, I counted, on one hill-top, 
thirty-two pieces of artillery — to say nothing of different- 
ly located single and double batteries, all playing upon 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 233 

this one fort and the earthworks to which I was returning. 
Continuing my way, several squads of rebel prisoners were 
passed. Each company was feebly guarded, for we had 
no unnecessary forces to care for men who evidently would 
soon be caring for themselves. They returned my sol- 
dier's salute; some company officer adding: "Hit'll be 
you'uns turn to be taken next. We'uns'll soon have you 
'uns, without you 'uns is purty peert gittin' out o' this." 
I quote their own localisms and grammar, which I thought 
almost as killing as their grape-shot, but which were quite 
in keeping with their culture and their cause. 

Reaching my regiment, no essential changes had tak- 
en place except that two of the guns af our extreme left 
had been dismounted and the horses killed. This massing 
of rebel artillery in our front was only to cover some se- 
cret movement of infantry. There were other indications 
of this fact — signs of a gathering storm whose fury we 
are soon to face. 



Fourth Paper 

We had not to wait long to see and to feel the on- 
coming of vastly superior numbers. Under the cover of a 
continuous artillery fire, and by the aid of intervening 
undulations of surface, the enemy had massed a large 
force of infantry on the farther side of a wood to the front 
of our regiment. They began to move up slowly, step by 
step, over and through the fallen timber — a labyrinth of 
trunks and interlocked limbs. Our fire into them was 
fast, furious, and well-aimed. Every volley mowed many 
in those lines of gray. But for the scores or hundreds 
killed or disabled at the front, there seemed to be thou- 
sands pressing forward from the rear. On and on they 



234 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

come, loading and firing, climbing and clambering for- 
ward through that tumble of timber as if it were sweet 
to die for Jefferson Davis. Down, too, went those daring 
ones as fast as our lines could load and fire. Our sharp- 
shooters posted at most effective points, emptied saddle 
after saddle, and laid low many an officer on foot. And 
yet they come, nearer, nearer, and receive into their faces 
the flash and fire of our guns. Reaching the deep outer 
ditch excavated in throwing up this strong line of earth- 
works, they leap down into it, many of them not to rise 
again. The dead pile up till the living stand on them 
and fire into us over the crest of our own works. They 
even grasp our gun-barrels and struggle to wrench them 
from our hands. Some are shot down with their grip up- 
on our muskets. Others are bayoneted, or beaten down 
with the butts of our guns, and fall back upon their own 
dead and dying. Outnumbering us perhaps five to one, 
they soon begin to leap over our defenses. Deeper 
than ever now becomes the hand-to-hand conflict. It is a 
tangle and confusion of friend and foe. Just now — and 
with enough already on hand — a new danger is discov- 
ered. Over the crest of the near hill upon our right, col 
umn after column of Confederates are coming at a double 
quick. Glancing in that direction a few moments, I 
vividly remember that nearly as quickly as one can count 
three, that many times their advance colors went down. 
As bearer after bearer fell, another would spring to his 
place, lift up and start forward with the fallen flag. Our 
officers, Gen. Keifer, of Springfield, Lt. Col. Foster, of 
Piqua, and Major Binkley, of Troy, bore themselves with 
unsurpassed self-possession and gallantry. Seeing at last 
that longer resistance was annihilation or capture, order 
was given to retreat. Some did not obey. Some were now 
deaf to all human commands, others wounded, and some 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 235 

held in the strong grip of the foe. Allow me here to relate 
but one or two of numerous and vividly-remembered inci- 
dents. Serg't. McAnally, whom I had enlisted near Troy, 
a good musician, and for many years my choir leader, 
was wounded, and then struck down under a rebel musket. 
I fully believed him to have been killed. At the first 
opportunity I wrote to his wife the circumstance of his 
wounding and supposed death. I extolled his virtues as 
a man, a soldier, and officer, and one fearless in the very 
face of death. As it happened, the sergeant had been 
wounded only. He was captured, exchanged at Rich- 
mond, reached home, and had the pleasure of reading that 
justly complimentary obituary letter. But poor Mc- 
Anally never recovered. He was ordered to a General 
Hospital at Louisville, and there died. 

One more instance of daring at the same time and 
place, Corporal John R. Rhoades, of Fletcher, Miami Co., 
Ohio, of my Company, was rushed upon by a rebel Major, 
who, with uplifted sword commanded him to surrender. 
Corporal Rhoades and the Major were of different mind 
in this matter. Corporal R. was a good Methodist class- 
leader, and had defied too many of the devil's darts to 
cower now under this Confederate blade. So, quickly 
drawing back his gun, he thrust his bayonet through the 
officer's body, burying its points in his spine. Unable to 
withdraw it, he let go the gun, at the same moment throw 
ing up his hands to parry a vengeful blow from a clubbed 
musket. Success was but partial, for the musket stock, 
lock downward, descended upon his head, cutting through 
the scalp, dazing him and falling him to the ground. Not 
till then did he announce surrender. He rises again, but 
the life of such a Yankee must be ended, and quickly an- 
other rebel thrust the muzzle of his gun against Rhoades' 
head, and was about pressing the trigger. Instantly a 



236 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

rebel Lieutenant struck the gun downward, and repri- 
manded the private for such an indignity to a surrendered 
and helpless prisoner. Rhoades, with others of our pris- 
oners, was taken behind the earthworks above described, 
and placed under strong guard for the night. He slept 
near the dead rebel Major, whose life was the penalty of 
supposing that our brave, pious, patriotic, six-foot Cor- 
poral Rhoades could be scared into surrender. The cor- 
poral is yet living and serving the Lord in his old home 
town above named. 

I pass numerous other equally thrilling incidents, and 
go back to the order for our retreat. We flee down a long 
slope to be terribly peppered as we ascend the hill beyond. 
There was no other practicable outlet, though the direc- 
tion brought us in full view of the rebel horde, and within 
easy range of their light arms. How so many of us ever 
reached and passed the summit of that hill, so as then to 
file left and reach the earthworks at and near our camp, is 
one of the mysteries of battle. But not all were so fortu- 
nate. Wild as was the rebel aim, some were wounded and 
easily made prisoners. Once over the hill, we dared to 
slacken our retreat, but did not pause to inspect the qual- 
ity of the soil or pick up geological specimens. 

We plodded on to camp and took up our position be- 
hind a line of earthwork at its rear. Here we were inevit- 
ably exposed to a heavy and constant fire from numerous 
rebel batteries on the high grounds west of us, southwest, 
south, and southeast. The sun was now within an hour 
of its setting. The Confederates were on every hand con- 
tracting their lines to crowd us to a crisis. Looking down 
from our high ground toward the city, and over the level 
fields to the north, I could see our forces that had fought 
valiantly at different points during the day, falling back 
and ascending the long hillslope to the strong outworks 



SONG WAR STORIES LETTERS 237 

that had teen constructed for the anticipated exigency 
now upon us. All Milroy's force was now gathered or was 
concentrating for its final stand within or behind its only 
remaining defenses. As the sun was near its setting there 
was a lull in both our own and the enemy's artillery. 
Just then the gorgeous western sky would have shamed 
the rich coloring of the old Venetian schools, and put to 
blush the more modern and masterly imitations of sunset 
glory. The stillness was as tranquil and undisturbed as 
if this had been the prelude of millennial peace. Stand- 
ing by the side of Gen. Keifer, I called his attention to the 
glory of this evening sky. Before any reply was possible, 
all the vast semi-circle of rebel batteries burst into sub- 
lime and deafening chorus. Had the Lord dimmed the 
keen sight of the gunners? Josephus says he did when 
the Romans shot flame at the temple dome upon the points 
of their arrows. Strange as it may seem, with few ex- 
ceptions, shot and shell either fell short or passed over us, 
and over our strongest and largest fort just to our right, 
now full of infantry. All the rebel guns were now being 
vigorously worked. Why did not our own batteries reply ? 
About dark their silence broke. The sight was grand, 
and the sounds thrilling and singularly impressive. The 
duel was incessant till an hour after dark, when a new 
danger developed. The force that drove us from our 
earthworks in the late afternoon, had mustered for a sim- 
ultaneous assault at night. Our regiment stood in line 
with the long, western front of the main fort. Before 
this front the attacking forces first appeared. All along 
its length within, and between the intervals of the great 
guns, our infantry was crowded to resist the anticipated 
assault. Muskets lay thick upon the parapet's crest, 
pointed to the assailants, and ready to flash death into 
their face. The moment came, and the assaulting force 



238 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

furiously struck this full-length front of our strongest de- 
fense. In line with it, upon the left, I could look along 
its entire length, I see the stream of fire that flashed de- 
fiance to what seemed a frenzied purpose to reach and 
scale our ramparts, — a scene too fearfully grand ever to 
be forgotten. But soon our part of the work was at hand. 
The right of the rebel lines opened a furious fire upon us 
in the darkness. Streams of fire lighted up the gloom and 
made conspicuous targets of friend and foe. Persistent 
as was the assault, the blue lines had too much at stake to 
be forced back. Thousands of muskets made that answer 
from every embrasure, cannons roared the same reply. 
For an hour this daring night attack was continued, all 
our forces engaged, all our infantry and artillery resist- 
ing its persistency and defying its success. At last no 
enemy answered, and no sight or sound revealed their 
whereabouts in the darkness. It was afterwards learned 
that they fell back with purpose of renewing the assault 
in the early morning, and that their loss in dead and 
wounded had been singularly severe. No more firing, all 
was now silent, — no, not silent, for the saddest of sounds 
came out of the darkness. Calls from our wounded could 
be heard from the ground over which but a few hours be- 
fore we had made our retreat. The various names of 
officers or comrades could be heard in plaintive appeals 
from the wounded for help from us who could neither an- 
swer nor give aid. The wounded and dying of neither 
side could be cheered by any merciful attentions before 
morning. But saddest of all were the groans heard 
through all the long, sleepless, terrible night-hours from 
our own hospital. They were mingled with the grating 
sound of surgeons' saws, — in many cases cries extorted by 
the hurried amputations which impending events made 
painfully necessary. Beneath bloody tables lay hands 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 239 

and feet and arms and limbs, transcending all treasures 
of gold, — glad but gory offerings upon our country's altar. 
Pensions, large or small, can never compensate such an- 
guish, such loss, such maiming, such disfigurement, such 
unreassured and immeasurable disadvantage through re- 
maining life. With no pleasure do I advert to these bloody 
scenes. They are painful recollections in a history in 
which they essentially but unhappily figure. 

In my next I shall speak of Milroy's retreat, his inter- 
ception by the enemy, and his battle-hewn pathway to 
safe lodgment beyond their lines. 



Fifth Paper 

My fourth paper carried us beyond those stubbornly 
made but successfully resisted night assaults. It closed 
with quite an inadequate account of such hospital sounds 
and scenes as are incident to surgical attentions to the 
wounded. Not all the injured were treated that night of 
suffering and of painful uncertainty as to what calamity 
might come with the morning. Of those wounded on the 
late afternoon retreat several were heard moaning and 
calling beyond the advanced and now near-by rebel lines. 
After the repulse of the nigit attack the position of our 
regiment was slightly changed. We were then ordered to 
rest at will, but on arms and in line of battle. It is now 
late in the night. From sounds without the near-by fort; 
from rapidly repeated strokes; from noise of carefully 
moving hoof and wheel : from all the quiet and mysterious 
movements barely audible about the camp and over the 
whole area of ground on which Milroy's force had rallied 
about night-fall for its final stand, — from all this it was 
evident that something of moment might soon occur. As 



240 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

afterwards developed, a council of war had decided upon 
evacuation. Hence cannons were spiked, ordnance and 
commissary stores cast into deep wells, and all abandoned 
property made as useless to the Confederacy as haste and 
quietness would allow. We could also hear the low rum- 
ble of wheels and quiet tread of troops, the meaning of 
which the darkness and the absence of audible command 
left us only to surmise. And one's conjecture must be 
mainly with himself, for all communication must be in 
whisper or carefully suppressed tone. How strange this 
environment of doubt — how singular the experience! To 
stand in a mystery, to dwell in a conundrum, to know not 
which cardinal point faces you toward death nor which 
toward life, is a compound consciousness that defies 
metaphysical analysis. But this is the way of war — this 
is the agnosticism of all military maneuvering. But in 
due time a period is put to our uncertainty. Some one 
passes along the line and speaks the word "Attention," in 
a low voice. His directions are: "Immediately in line, 
without knapsacks or blankets — nothing but arm and 
ammunition." The order is to march. My watch indicates 
the hour of two o'clock in the morning. Haziness makes 
dim the starlight and difficult the task of marching in 
line. Commands are given and repeated in a low voice, and 
audible conversation is forbidden. Every footfall breaks 
the stillness and seems rudely loud where silence may 
be life. That we are surrounded is certain; that a six- 
fold outnumbering force awaits not far off to dispute our 
only avenue of escape, is unquestioned. Silently as possi- 
ble our regiment — the 110th O. V., Gen. Keifer and Major 
Binkley in command — in lead of the entire retreating 
force, march down the long hill, and strike the valley 
pike, half a mile east of Winchester. Filing left we con- 
tinue on that highway. After proceeding a few hundred 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 241 

yards our long wagon train, captured, robbed, disabled 
and abandoned by the enemy compelled us to march along 
the sides of the road. At a distance of about four miles 
up this pike I noticed flashes of light in a large wood some 
three hundred yards in our advance. The distance away 
and the tread of feet deafened us to the echo of any report. 
But the situation was readily discovered by our scouts 
and by officers in front. The crisis had come? Our regi- 
ment was halted for a moment, then filed to the left about 
200 yards into field, and right again into parallel direc- 
tion with the pike. A few minutes' march and we were 
halted, faced to the right, squarely in front of the wood 
occupied by the enemy. As afterwards learned, they had 
thrown forward to this point a force of some thirty thou- 
sand to cut off our retreat and assure our capture. It was 
yet dark, so that neither side could know precisely the 
force or position of the other. In such a case fearlessness, 
dash and defiance, under competent generalship, count 
everything. 

All our force has been drawn up in front of this wood. 
I omitted to state that the rebel lines thrown across the 
pike fell back upon their main body when our column 
struck them so quietly and unexpectedly in the dark, 
some two hundred yards beyond the pike instead of upon 
it. This mystified them as to our movement and numbers, 
with a few shots they recoiled and quickly doubled back 
across and beyond the pike out of our way. Our striking 
them at that distance from the road proved to be a prec- 
ious little strategetic victory for us. It sprung the gate 
ajar. Up to this time our fire had been held for what 
our officers knew would be a heavier demand. As I was 
saying, all our forces were now drawn up paralleled with 
the pike, and in front of the wood. The word, "For- 
ward," all along the line. Forward, steadily forward, we 



242 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

moved. Whatever is in front of us in those open but deep- 
shaded woods, we shall soon see — and feel! Not many 
steps, and suddenly leaden messengers from ten thousand 
muskets spoke all mystery into grim materiality. Our 
answer was instant, and steadily we pushed forward, re- 
peating the reply — loading, firing, pressing nearer and 
nearer, and then with a leap forward and a defiant shout 
we charged their line and sent them flying farther down 
into the wood. We followed up, still pressing them back, 
and pouring into them volley after volley. Then came a 
short pause for breath and for better alignment in the 
brush and the darkness. Meanwhile there came a rebel 
recoil, with such fury and seeming re-enforcement that 
we in turn gave back hurriedly for perhaps a hundred 
yards. Here we halt, face about, await their coming, meet 
them with vigorous, rapid, well-aimed volleys, withstand 
their assault, made more terrible by their thundering bat- 
teries, whose shots dash into our faces earth and bark 
and stinging splinters, and whose flash and roar down in 
the dark wood seemed as if pandemonium had come up 
from the pit in mad alliance with rebellion. We faced it 
all, withstood it all, and again advanced to drive back the 
foe with a charge and cheer more terrible to them than 
was ever the "rebel yell" to us. Again they fled, and 
again we followed, this time deeper into the wood, and 
much nearer their batteries than before, — so near that, 
as it was afterwards learned, some of their pieces were 
temporarily abandoned. But not long were we to hold 
its ground, for against us were hurled fresh and yet 
stronger columns. In good order the ground was yielded, 
and in good alignment we fell back and faced again to 
the foe. 

That the meaning and merit of the next stroke of our 
regiment may be properly understood and placed, a word 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 243 

of explanation is here needed. Our regiment marched out 
of Winchester in the front, and upon its fate in this fight 
will probably pivot the issue of this bold stroke for escape. 
If the advance regiment fail to breach this living wall, 
those bravely co-operating along all the hard-pressed line 
must share defeat and face alike the horrors of Confeder- 
ate prison-walls. Well, in those two charges already de- 
scribed, our whole force, numbering, after the two previ- 
ous days' fight, perhaps five thousand, were engaged. The 
length and unavoidable irregularity of lines, as well as 
the darkness, prevented any one's seeing much of what 
any other company of his own regiment were doing, and 
wholly what success or failure was attending other regi- 
ments of his brigade. 

We are now in line for the third and last charge, — 
and here occurred an incident I have never publicly re- 
lated, and the officer in whose favor it speaks I am confi- 
dent has never given it publicity. Perhaps he has never 
since thought of it, for numberless instances of bravery, 
skill, forecast and self-forgetfulness never were and never 
can be verbally related or placed upon printed record. 
The circumstance is this: We were standing in line, as 
stated, and ready for what proved to be, for this occasion, 
our last, most successful, and most fortunate charge. It 
happened that Gen. Milroy had reined his horse close to 
the writer, and just in the rear of his company. Gen. 
Keifer here rode up to Milroy and made this request — his 
words not interrupted by the ball that cut through his 
clothing at the ankle while he spoke: "General, shall I 
oblique my regiment to the left and charge those fellows 
yonder in the woods ?" "Yes, if you think you can, do it." 
Gen. Keifer moved his regiment into oblique line a few 
hundred feet to the left, and then commanded, "Forward." 
We soon struck the strong rebel line, but we pressed upon 



244 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

them with such spirit and such fast-repeated volleys that 
their imagination may have magnified one regiment into a 
brigade. Backward and backward we crowded them with 
all possible rapidity and persistency of forcing. Pressing 
them to a distant point in the wood, it was known that this 
successful charge had practically exhausted our ammu- 
nition, and that it could not be replenished. Keifer's pur- 
pose in this bold move, in this very crisis of the conflict, 
was at the moment unknown to subordinate officers. It 
was conceived at the moment, and for the emergency, by 
the intentively military mind of this able officer. He pur- 
posed that our dash at the rebels obliquely upon their 
right should give them the impression that we were re- 
ceiving re-enforcements from Harper's Ferry. They so 
took it, and concluded that it was better to yield the 
ground for a little while than boldly to countercharge and 
run the risk of a trap. So, out of ammunition, and a door 
of escape now strategically opened, the command was giv- 
en to retreat — to retreat at will, I think was the command. 
At any rate, under the circumstances we willed to retreat. 
We must do quickly what is now to be done, for very soon 
the rebels will miss us from their front, discover our re- 
treat, and make a fresh grab for what two hours before 
they thought to be bagged game. And miss us they soon 
did. When we cleared the wood and reached the pike, 
they were not far behind, vigorously firing as they came. 
One hundred yards beyond the pike a wide, deep brook 
might delay us or lead to many captures. But we watched 
for sure footing for the kangaroo leap, and amidst a 
storm of lead we touched the other bank. Not willing to 
risk any reputation I may have for veracity, I venture 
no statement as to the width of that creek ! On the re- 
treat out of the wood we passed the prostrate and help- 
less wounded. These were upturned faces whose pleading, 



SONG WAR STORIES — LETTERS 245 

pitiful, despairing expression is in memory and heart to- 
day. One took terrible chances, and consented to awful 
experiences, when he went out to battle for his country. 

It was Keifer's strategy that saved Milroy's army — 
that hewed the gap and swung the gate of its escape. 
Milroy was a brave, daring, dashing General, but he had 
not the coolness and instant calculation for a critical and 
unforeseen situation. 

The circumstances and experiences of our retreat to 
Harper's Ferry are of interest, but my papers have already 
multiplied beyond anticipated number and length. We 
were stationed two weeks on Maryland heights opposite 
Harper's Ferry watching the movements of Lee as he was 
gradually crossing his great army at Williamsport and 
Falling Waters, on his way to Gettysburg. At last we 
were ordered to re-enforce Meade. We moved at once to 
Washington, and thence to Frederick City. We soon met 
the retreating army of Lee, and then commenced that ser- 
ies of marches and conflicts that carried our regiment on 
and on with the great Potomac army, across the Rapidan, 
through the wilderness, to Petersburg, to Richmond, to 
Appomattox, and to the peace that spread joy over the 
land, that returned the living to their homes, but left the 
dead of battle and of prison pens to repose beneath the 
vigil of the never-sleeping God till the trumpet sound and 
they rise in resurrection glory in the last day. 

H. Y. Rush. 



246 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

A VISIT TO CAMP PIATT 

(For the Springfield Republic) 
Ed. Republic: — 

Having recently returned from a short visit to West- 
ern Virginia, perhaps a brief narration of our trip might 
be of interest to some of your readers. To those who 
have sons or friends in the regiment of the Kanawha, this 
sketch will doubtless be of more or less interest. 

The number of my acquaintances in the 44th regi- 
ment, together with the contradictory reports concerning 
our troops in Western Virginia, had long since given me 
a desire to see and know certain things for myself. Ac- 
cordingly, in company with S. W. Sterrett, Esq., I left 
Springfield on the 16th ult. ? en route for "Secessiondom," 
— nor should I forget to mention that the pleasantness of 
our trip from Cincinnati was much enhanced by the com- 
pany of Mr. James Craig, of Springfield. 

I need say but little touching the geography of the 
country lying on either side of the Ohio river, between 
Cincinnati and Point Pleasant, Virginia. High bluffs 
rise on both sides, but on the Kentucky side they are more 
precipitous, and approach more nearly the water's edge. 
The bottom ground on neither hand is very wide, except 
at a few localities. It is very perceptible, however, that 
the Ohio river is the dividing line between two highly an- 
tagonistic institutions. So much is this the case as to 
keep the observing traveler standing much of the time at 
the bow of the boat, thereby relieving the monotony of 
the gentlemen's ( ?) cabin, besides giving a man fresh 
blasts from the direction of Pittsburg, instead of the 
nauseous fumes of "Havannah sixes." Nothing of special 
interest occurred between Cincinnati and Point Pleasant, 



SONG WAR STORIES LETTERS 247 

except that we slowly but gradually moved "forward" 
a very uncommon thing since our military backsliding at 
Bull Run. 

The most interesting part of our trip, in point of 
scenery and associations, lay between Point Pleasant and 
Camp Piatt. As we were traveling by steamboat we could 
not realize that we were now treading on "sacred soil;" 
but our recollections of Romanism were sufficiently vivid 
to make us feel that we were sailing on "Holy Water." 
We saw along the river, several marks of the rebel Wise, 
whose only wisdom seemed to be in timely and rapid 
retreats. Sunken flat-boats, the wreck of a burnt steamer, 
fortifications deserted without defense, are among the 
marks of that cowardly rebel, whose most appropriate 
neck-tie would be a halter. 

Soon after we began to steam up the Kanawha, we 
observed some interesting peculiarities in the physical as- 
pect of the country. From the point of its confluence with 
the Ohio, a very broken country marks the course of the 
Kanawha. This is all the more true as you approach the 
junction of Gauley and New rivers. The farther you as- 
cend, the more lofty, precipitous, and rocky are the hills 
on either side. In many instances they approach so near 
the river as to leave no space for roads between. Wher- 
ever there was bottom land, it seemed to be of the best 
quality. The timber embraces a great variety, but the 
pine is most numerous on the summits. I was surprised 
to see almost every species of timber flourishing on those 
rocky hill-sides. How richly they might contribute to 
botanic science, I had not the opportunity of observing. 
Some excellent farm-houses are to be seen on the left bank 
of the river; but the buildings usually represent poverty 
and poor living. 

Camp Piatt is pleasantly located on the right bank of 



248 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

the Kanawha river, about seventy-five miles from its 
mouth. The tents are pitched on the sloping foot of a very 
tall, steep hill, or small mountain. This is perhaps a 
favorable location on account of the rains running off 
more rapidly, and permitting the ground soon to dry, and 
become solid. A good spring on the mountain-side, is 
accessible from the camp. The river water itself is not 
surpassed for beverage and culinary purposes. Being in 
the camp as many days and nights as Jonah was in the 
whale's belly, and eating and sleeping with the soldiers, I 
think I am prepared to say something about their board 
and bedding. — I am happy, for my own sake, and that of 
many anxious parents, to report most favorably indeed. 
The soldiers' rations were all in quantity and quality that 
any but an epicure could desire. Beefsteak, pork, crack- 
ers, coffee, tea, sugar, were part of their usual meals. 
Their food was much better than many an honest man 
enjoys at home. 

As to bedding, I heard no complaint, and I had no oc- 
casion to make any myself. I believe every soldier may 
sleep with comfort, and dream of his sweetheart, if he 
thinks enough of her. The cleanliness of the soldiers and 
of the camp is remarkable. No mother, or sister, or 
lover would meet offense in this respect. In some cases 
the skin is necessarily tinged somewhat with coal soot, 
but not enough to make one suspicious of amalgamation. 
The morality of the camp is good, I heard but little pro- 
fane language while there — less during three days than 
I heard in one hour from an unfledged, water-brained 
Lieutenant of a certain Kentucky Begiment. There are 
many active, praying Christians in the Begiment, whose 
influence is good over their fellow-soldiers. Among these 
persevering witnesses of Christ, are the deserving names 
of Mr. Alex. McConkey and "mess." There are many 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 249 

others whose names are doubtless written in Heaven. In 
a word, I consider the tendencies of the Regiment strong- 
ly moral, a circumstance attributable in no small degree 
to excellent officers. It is due to those for whose satis- 
faction I write, to say that the great majority of officers 
in the 44th Eegiment are the best of men, giving all need- 
ful attention to the soldiers, and extending all courtesy 
to visitors. 

There are some circumstances in the camp that re- 
mind one much of home. The singing heard day and night 
in the tents awakens a fond recollection of the pews, gal- 
leries, and firesides left behind. We were especially en- 
tertained the evening before our departure, in the tent 
of Capt. Cummings. The music of that evening Orpheus 
himself would not have blushed to own. The kindness 
shown us by both privates and officers made our visit truly 
pleasant, and it was with reluctance that we parted from 
friends so kind. But for our presence they have our pray- 
ers and best wishes; and should they fall in battle or 
camp, their names shall ever be revered for steadfast de- 
votion to their Country. 

The soldiers seem to be very social and kind towards 
each other. I noticed that in some instances a portion of 
the luxuries sent from home was distributed among the 
tents of sick soldiers. Such things as these did not look 
as if camp-life is so detrimental to morals as some sup- 
pose. 

What I have written relates chiefly to the 44th Eegi- 
ment. From personal observation I can say but little of 
the other Regiments in Western Virginia, I am credibly 
informed, however, that their wants are in no way neg- 
lected. 

On our return I left Mr. S. W. Sterrett at Point 
Pleasant. From thence he intended to go to Kentucky on 



250 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

business relating to the interests of certain soldiers and 
their families. He has returned home, and brings good 
news of the health and comfort of our boys in Kentucky. 
To conclude my letter, I am convinced that camp-life 
is not so detrimental to health and morals as is generally 
supposed. In fact, I believe the regimen, or diet, of the 
soldiers, is an effectual remedy for most cases of dyspep- 
sia, liver complaint, and many kindred ills that originate 
from high living and irregularity of habit. The healthful 
influence over the mind I also observed in several in- 
stances — instances in which a buoyant and cheerful spirit 
had taken the place of a morose and desponding mood. 
Many who join the army with a listless and giddy mind, 
soon become manly and solid in their demeanor. That 
there are isolated cases of an opposite character, I do not 
deny; and that there are many hardships in active mili- 
tary duty, I know to be true ; but the cause for which we 
suffer is worthy of all we can give of peace, comfort, or life 
for its maintenance. 

H. Y. Rush. 



AMONG THE MORMONS 

(Sun of July 21, '98) 

Bro. Editor : — Your editorial, "The Mormons Again", 
prompts me to pen this article. I am pleased with your 
forcible exposure of this monster iniquity. All that you 
say is true, as every traveler in Utah and student of Mor- 
monism will testify. That any professed Christian should 
harbor, or in any way favor Mormon missionaries, is a 
thing inconsistent and unaccountable. Christ tells us 
that we should command Satan to get behind us and not 
harbor him in our houses nor help to spread his delusions, 



SONG — WAR STORIES LETTERS 251 

among the people. If any of our people in the South 
should board or harbor a Mormon missionary, they would 
thereby strike a blow at the family relation, the home, 
the sheet-anchor of civilization. To do that is to defy God 
and become a friend of Satan. 

Several years ago I went to Utah to study the insti- 
tution of Mormonism. I was kindly received ; stopped at 
a Mormon hotel, visited Mormon families, went with Mor- 
mon excursions, witnessed their dancing, games and feast- 
ing on their fine Salt Lake vessels, conversed with their 
leaders and laity privately, attended their Sunday-schools, 
their preaching services and musical concerts; visited 
Brigham Young in his office, his home, and his cottage- 
harem. All this was summed up in the conclusion that 
their whole system is of Satan, their leaders lechers, their 
followers dupes, their practices licentious, and their relig- 
ion not one whit short of a legalized system of prostitu- 
tion, social indecency, and damnable licentiousness. I 
heard Orson Pratt, their greatest preacher and expositor, 
deliver a sermon smutted with allusions that no decent 
man would allow at his fireside. I do not dare to quote 
more of his statements than one. All else played as prom- 
ises and "elysian" possibilities around that one thought. 
Said he: "No person can go to heaven who has not been 
the parent of children in this world, and joy there will 
be measured by this parental duty here. When I reach 
heaven — if I have complied on earth with this Bible con- 
dition of entrance — I expect to become the father of mil- 
lions and millions of children." That sermon was preach- 
ed to a mixed tabernacle audience of four thousand people. 
It had already been announced that the "apostle" Pratt 
would that day preach a sermon in proof of Mormonism 
as doctrine of the Old and New Testaments, corroborated 
by the yet later revelation of God to the "Latter Day 



252 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

Saints". Eepellant as were many things in that sermon, 
no one could know the spirit and genius of Mormonism 
without hearing it — without studying the speaker, and the 
facial and visual approval of the Mormon portion of that 
vast assembly. 

I talked with many Mormons privately. From one 
only did I receive what seemed a frank admission of what 
ten thousand others knew to be the misery of their domes- 
tic life. He and I were riding alone in his carriage. 
After a long discussion upon the doctrines and practices 
of their church, in which he was as obstinate as fluent, I 
said : "You say you had a good wife and a happy family 
near Cleveland, Ohio. Now let me frankly ask you wheth- 
er you were not happier then with your one wife, trying 
with her to train that one set of children for life and for 
usefulness, than you now are with your three wives and 
twenty-three children, with less opportunity to be with 
them in their homes, to be with your children at their 
firesides, to look personally and carefully after their edu- 
cation — in other words, my friend, don't you think that in 
view of all these advantages of having but one wife, one 
home, and looking personally after the interests of one 
and only one set of children, a man is happier than with 
three wives, three houses for them, and three sets of chil- 
dren?" 

Turning to me, and looking me squarely in the face, 
he answered: "Now, friend, I'm going to be honest with 
you, and I'll just tell you what's so. I've tried married 
life both ways, and if a man wants to be contented, pros- 
perous, and happy, and don't want all the hair pulled out 
of his head, he had better never have but one wife !" 

Brother Editor, I could fill a page of The Sun with 
my observations among the Mormons ; but it is not a prof- 
itable theme further to pursue. Mormonism is a religion 






SONG WAR STORIES — LETTERS 253 

of social, domestic, and political rottenness. That it 
should be tolerated in our republic, be a factor in national 
politics, and a power in the halls of our American Con- 
gress, is a menace and a calamity. That any church mem- 
ber should harbor Mormon missionaries seems incredible. 
Should any one read this article who has been guilty of 
such inconsistency, let him repent and sin no more. 

O O O 

THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI EXPOSITION 

(Franklin Cronicle of October 13, '98 ) 

A few words from one fresh from this Fair may inter- 
est the Chronicle readers. It surpassed all my anticipa- 
tions. It is a colossal success — a triumph of enterprise in 
spite of business depression and the Spanish war. More 
than two million visitors agree in such a verdict. That it 
is the conception and creation mainly of the trans-Mis- 
sissippi states makes it all the more a surprise. These 
were a wilderness three hundred years under Spanish pos- 
session. But for the brain and the brawn of Americanism 
they would have remained a meadow for the buffalo and 
a hunting ground for the Indian. This Fair is the creation 
of a much smaller territory than that of whole realms rep- 
resented in the Columbian Exposition. In that the world 
poured its wealth of tongues and people, country and con- 
tinent, genius and glory into a spacious park at Chicago. 
And yet in some respects the Omaha Exposition surpasses 
that of the great Fair of '93. The classic beauty of the 
buildings, the artistic order of the elegant structures, the 
chaste design of the Arch of States and the Administra- 
tion Arch, the beauty of the lagoon under electric bril- 
liancy at night, vie with the veritable triumphs at Chi- 



254 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

cago. The lagoon — half a mile in length — is more ornate 
in its floral beauty, its grace of banks and gorgeous bor- 
dering, than that of the World's Fair. This little inland 
sea is utilized for purposes of pleasure and instruction. 
On its deep waters are given exhibitions of United States 
naval drill and of the Government Life Saving Service. 
A vessel sinks; a line is shot from shore across the pro- 
jecting mast; life-boats row through breakers to the res- 
cue; drowned sailors are brought to the beach, scientific- 
ally resuscitated, etc. All this is strikingly realistic. It 
thrills and instructs the multitude more than drama or 
tragedy of the stage. 

Those interested in art and science may also give 
wide scope to observation and study. Along this line are 
numerous appropriate and up-to-date displays. In some 
exhibits the unique and anomalous are mingled with the 
normal and well known. In the Indian encampment the 
Government has made a singular and instructive ethno- 
logic exhibit. Such a number of Indians — nearly a thou- 
sand men, women and children — were never before gotten 
together to display so much that is peculiar to their per- 
sonal and tribal life — wigwams, annual hunts, trailing a 
foe, bow-dance, horn-dance, war-dance, war-path, surprise, 
attack and fierce battle. But civilization is rapidly rele- 
gating these savage practices; hence so literal an exhibit 
of aboriginal life may not find record again in any chapter 
of our annals. The fact that 76 per cent, of the Indians 
who have been educated are doing fairly well, is evidence 
of their ultimate absorption into our American civiliza 
tion. Even these Indians linger thoughtfully before ob- 
jects of modern art and stand in wonder amid these 
assembled triumphs of science. The trend of his culture 
is toward domesticity and admiration of beauty and art. 
His education year by year becomes a more potent factor 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 255 

in the final civilization of his race. A century more will 
absorb him into the social cosmogony of Americanism, 
and the racial line will linger only in an attenuated trace 
of copper. 

Space allows but a limited description of the South- 
ern Negro Village, a feature of the fair not given at Chi- 
cago. Here is an assembly of imported Southern planta- 
tion cabins and families — one cabin from the plantation 
of Robert Tombs. Here Southern negro life is seen in all 
its singularity of ante-bellum days — the venerable "uncle" 
and "auntie/' and the younger parents with their numer- 
ous progeny of piccaninnies. You may converse with them, 
enter their humble cabins, hear the hum of their spinning- 
wheels, scan their rude cooking utensils, see the baking of 
hoe-cake and corn pone, provoke their mirth and count the 
ivory teeth set in a face of ebony. Passing to the farther 
end of the village you reach a much larger cabin where for 
a dime you witness a negro camp-meeting. It is no exag- 
geration. It is the perfection of the serio-comic, and you 
should stay out if you have any scruples 'gainst smilin' in 
meetin'. Some of their hymns are singularly plaintive 
and are the very soul of pathos and melody. The preach- 
ing and the responses may not improve your piety, but 
they will dissipate the "blues." Soon the scene changes. 
A transition occurs that is easy in all religion that is so 
emotional and chameleon like. A dance is proposed. 
Consternation soon changes to consent, and then follow 
the banjo, the plantation dance, the shuffle, the hoe-down, 
the guffaw, glee and joy of cabin and plantation life. This 
negro village is one of the few meritorious exhibits of the 
Midway. The attractions of that street are mainly a mix- 
ture of the amusing — a jumble of such novelties as cater 
to the morbid and curious. There some things of the '93 
Plaisance are seen again. There the patient camels 



256 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

crouch for their burdens, and lazy donkeys bear their 
loads of rural riders. 

Hardly have I yet touched the more valuable features 
of this Omaha Fair. Interesting beyond description is 
the United States exhibit. This with unprecedented com- 
pleteness represents the Departments of Agriculture, 
Treasury, Navy, the Life Saving Service, etc. Every war- 
ship of our recent conflict is there in costly and perfect 
model. In a word, in this one building the visitor gets a 
better conception of the growth and greatness of this 
Government than book could impart in a lifetime. 

In extent, variety and completeness of the Agricul- 
tural exhibits the Exposition triumphs. In this nothing 
at Chicago excelled what is seen at Omaha. Here one 
sees how the West is the Egypt of America — how the 
whole world might be fed with the ripened cereals of 
Illinois, Iowa, and states beyond the "Father of Waters." 
In the presence of such displays one exclaims, "How won- 
drous this Empire of the West!" Looking at it in the 
light of these trans-Mississippi facts and figures, its ex- 
tent, development and triumphs fall but little short of the 
marvelous. Population has flowed through it and over it 
not so much by single waves as by tidal inundations from 
the populous East and the peoples of other nations. This 
Fair is a bureau of information, and since its opening 
Nebraska and every Western state have risen far higher 
in the opinions of eastern investors and prospective set- 
tlers. How fruitful the year! Granaries all the way 
from Illinois to western Nebraska bulge with breadstuff 
for the hunger of humanity. If the saying is true that 
the commercial primacy of the world belongs to the coun- 
try that produces, as America now does, the cheapest pig 
iron, what shall be said of this great empire of the West 
which is a Goshen in abundant grain and an Ophir in 






SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 257 

gold! The Omaha display of minerals proves that the 
mountains of the west are adequate to all the needed 
white or yellow coinage of the country. In all resources 
of wealth, in the rapid march of history-making events, 
this exposition presents a picture that almost mystifies 
the visitor from abroad. 

Omaha is a wonderful city — an infant Chicago where 
buffalo grazed at the close of the civil war. It is the 
metropolis of Nebraska. It has somewhat fewer than 
150,000 inhabitants, over 50 public and private parks, 
110 churches, the finest hospitals, court-house, post-office, 
and other public buildings in the west. Going on to Lin- 
coln, Greta, Harvard, Hastings, Kearney, and other 
places, I noted the immense crops of the state, the growth 
of towns and cities, the brighter hopes of the people, and 
the evidently wonderful future of the ever-progressive 
commonwealth of Nebraska. So it is with Illinois, Iowa, 
Missouri, Colorado, and other agricultural and mineral 
states of the west. Do you ask by what railroad one may 
most speedily and pleasantly reach these cities and sec- 
tions of the inviting West ? From Chicago I have traveled 
all lines. Oftenest, because preferable to all others for 
speed, for free reclining chairs, for best service on sleep- 
ing and dining cars, I have patronized the Burlington, 
Quincy and Missouri Eiver Railway. This is no paid-for 
compliment but an item of advice to others who pay their 
fare and get a service that is worth the money. 

H. Y. Rush. 



258 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

PENCILINGS FROM WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS 

(Chronicle of August 21, 1884.) 

A DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTERS 

The average watering-place brings together charac- 
ters of every cast and contrariety. It is amusing to stand 
at the springs or sit amid the rustic seats and study face, 
form, fashion, and subjects of conversation. We hear 
everything discussed here but religion and politics. 
Cleveland, Blaine and Butler are all given the go-by, while 
sect and theology seem not to be mooted. Nevertheless, 
moral subjects and mutual spiritual interests are often 
topics of conversation, for spirit blends with spirit here as 
elsewhere. Nevertheless, not many religious, not many 
pious gather at these places. In fact, the other classes 
usually so preponderate, at both inland and seaside re 
sorts, that these become traps to virtue and open ways to 
ruin. No man, not even for millions, should ever suffer 
his daughter to attend a health or summer resort, unless 
accompanied by father or mother. If she is obedient, 
and has respect for her own character and the happiness 
of her parents, she is then safe. I do not believe that 
there is a single one of the best and most curative of these 
places but what is annually visited by men and women 
whose motives are ebulitions of perdition, and whose 
means of ruin are fair speech, faultless dress, full purse, 
beauty, brocade, broadcloth and senseless glitter. Young 
men and older men who are schooled in captivation, and 
whose "pieces of silver" are equal to all prices, frequent 
nearly all these places. At all of them there is this open 
hole to hell, and down through it drops the son of his 
mother's pride, and into this sulphur-fumed opening 
plunges the daughter worth more to father than all 



SONG — WAR STORIES — LETTERS 259 

worlds. Moral health is worth so much more than phys- 
ical, and the virtue and happiness of homes so transcend- 
ently above a summer of dissipation that we no more need 
a Saratoga than we do a saloon, nor a Long Branch than 
a city brothel. Providence has opened to us so many 
avenues of pleasure that one need not seek it in ways 
strewn with dead men's bones, and with the wrecks of 
virtue and of homes. But the heading of this article 
promises a description of 

SOME CHARACTERS 

at these springs, a place perhaps as free from vice and 
dangers noted as any in the nation. As already hinted, 
at these places gather all varieties of character, the sol- 
emn and the humorous, the eccentric and symmetrical, 
the cynic and the whimsical, the learned and the illiterate, 
the straight and broad-minded, and the mind twisted and 
pinched. Here, for example, is a tall, erect, and symmet- 
rically-built gentleman of sixty. He is a retired hydro- 
pathic doctor and phrenological lecturer. He is wealthy, 
affable, genial, but has a passion still for his old profes- 
sions. Not a few get from him a shower of gratuitous 
hygienic advice, and several heads have come under those 
long dextrous fingers that detect all the lesser and larger 
"bumps," and make a man think himself more capable of 
the Presidency than Arthur, or of being a merchant-prince 
than Stewart or Shillitto. 

That large, raw-boned, burly, bloated man, moving 
along yonder with careless, swinging gate, is the black 
sheep of a splendid flock. Whiskey and — - have ruined 
him, and he is here to get out of this sulphur water what it 
can't give him — what only the fountain opened in the 
house of David can do for him. 

That tall, slim, blonde-haired, young man, with 



260 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

"burnsides" and well-burnt cigar; with hat on his side 
head and cane swung aimlessly about, is a young Philadel- 
phia lawyer, a "masher" of the silly fair ones, and yet 
with a smile and a courtesy for the uncomeliest old moun- 
tian-homed grandmother, or the old sire that ventures 
down here from his daubed cabin on the hill-side. His 
head is small, his forehead high, smooth and receding, but 
into that summit point of his anatomy is packed away a 
contradiction and a mystery to philosophy — two things 
occupying and filling the same space at the same time, 
and continuously! Sure as you live, that little head is 
full of silliness, and packed also with solid sense. He 
repeats history, he renders Shakespeare from memory, he 
quotes Latin, recites the Greek, keeps posted in politics, 
and is well read in the varying phrases of the old and 
new theologies. I heard an able plea from him last sum- 
mer in a mock-trial, and am to enjoy a display of his legal 
learning and his elegant language this p. m. 

I see yonder a knee-pantalooned young Adonis. He 
walks about here in a suit not well decided as between the 
dress of a base-ballist and the uniform of a fresh cadet. 
He is low in stature, tersely built, joints closely set, mus- 
cles firmly knit, and laid along the bones like elastic tongs. 
He seems hardly to touch the ground in his suppleness at 
lawn tennis, especially if he imagines, as he invariably 
does, that all the fair eyes are upon him. He, too, has 
been much among books. That he is enriched by little of 
their love is perhaps owing to his native vanity and his 
overmastering infatuation with the fair sex. No young 
man or young lady ever becomes great under the perpet- 
ual craze for the company of the other sex. 

Those two ladies chatting beneath yonder spreading 
spruce tree, are maiden ladies, they are from Q. They 
say they are but twenty-six years of age. But there are 



SONG WAR STORIES LETTERS 261 

date marks about the forehead, and eyes, and cheeks that 
sit like interrogation points upon the statement. But 
as one is a radical Baptist, the other a devoted Episco- 
palian, and both well and efficient high-school teachers, 
we are constrained to accept their statement and attribute 
these chronologic lines to hard work and to probable dis- 
appointments at sometime under the age of thirty — no, 
twenty! They are intelligent, and have afforded us no 
little good by their inclination to sensible and soul-exalt- 
ing conversation. 

By the way this, like nearly all other health, rest, 
and pleasure retreats, seems a favorite resort for that 
much-abused class of ladies to which the two above-named 
belong. Many of these ladies are among the most useful 
class in society. Besides, it is better to live a single life 
all one's days, than marry a man who tarries at the wine, 
and robs his family to gratify his passion for billiards, 
dice, and cards. It is not wealth that assures happiness 
to the home, but that love of husband and wife that bound 
Eponina, of Eoman history to her husband in prison, and 
led her to request Csesar that she might die with her hus- 
band, saying: "Csesar, do me this grace, for I have lived 
more happily with Civilis my husband in our prison-dun- 
geon, and in the darkness, than thou in the splendor of 
thy palace." Home training and our schools ought to 
make Eponinas in noble womanhood of every young lady 
in our delightful Franklin. 

You see yonder a small, well-dressed man, even fault- 
lessly neat and trim in apparel, with costly chain and 
seal; with the sprinkled gray of sixty summers, whose 
mouth is Celtic and whose brogue is from Cork. By his 
side is a tall, stoutly built lady, his wife, the rustle of 
whose fabrics speak of their great £ost. Every day pre- 
sents her in a different dress, one seeming to vie with the 



262 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

other in elaboration and value, till the Sunday toilet 
eclipses the competitors of the week and presents a new 
wonder for Sheba's queen. They are of Irish parentage, 
immensely wealthy, never keeping house, but all the time 
boarding, and spending their summers at the different 
watering-places of the country. They are from a great 
New England city, and are members of one of the leading 
denominations of that historic corporation. 

The two accomplished ladies I barely overheard com- 
menting upon my discourse last Sunday are from Ba- 
varia. They are residing in Baltimore, are finely educat- 
ed and have just enough of the German accent to impart 
a singular and beautiful euphony to their conversation. 
I find them well informed in the history and the current 
news of the Old World, and hardly the less conversant 
with our own history and times. 

The tall, stately lady, with step firm and elastic, now 
walking yonder alone, is from another of our large cities. 
She is a widow of sixty, has seen the diversities of fortune 
and of life in their many phases. She lives sumptuously 
on a not easily-exhausted income, and spends her summers 
just as "laste or inclination may determine. A youn& 
Jady coming from her room approached us the other day 
with the exclamation, "eighty-eight!" "Eighty-eight 
what?'' I inquired. "Why, eighty-eight diamonds — I 
counted eighty-eight!" These are as large diamonds as 
I have ever seen worn, and may be safely estimated at 
twenty-five thousand dollars. 

Yonder sits a farmer from Kansas. He is a modest, 
kind-spoken, courteous, exemplary man, esteemed by all 
that are here. He is a man of piety, a lover of God, and 
has a large fund of information. By his example, by his 
modest manner, by his kindly-spoken words, and good 
advice to old and young, when proper to give it, he makes 



SONG WAR STORIES — LETTERS 203 

himself a Messing to the place. He is also something 
of a poet, and I close these pencilings with but two of his 
stanzas, from a lengthier manuscript : 

"Prom the hum of the city, 

From the dust of the street, 
From the office and shop, 

What a blessed retreat. 

" 'Mongst the, pine-clad hills 

Where the sweet bird sings, 
Where the water bursts forth 

From the White Sulphur Springs." 

H. Y. Eush. 



AMIDST THE MOUNTAINS 

(Chronicle of July 31, 1884.) 

Dear Editor : — On the eve of going away I promised 
you a word while gone. How far away one may be 
whirled in a few hours, — from valley to mountain, from 
midland to sea, from heat and dust to highlands and 
healthful waters! Modern means of locomotion does 
well-nigh away with distance, and when we shall have 
passed over and received our pinions, then even heaven 
and earth will lie side by side. 

How of late years the people flee from heat, and home, 
and business, and care ! There comes a voice out of the 
rush of passing trains, saying, "Lo ? here is rest, lo, there is 
health." It's largely a hygienic heresy, and custom and 
circumstance are its preachers. If people would plant 
fruit and shade — would picnic in the near ravines, and 
rest along their own rivers, they might thus bring near all 



264 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

the benefits they seek from afar. Moreover, much that 
people seek from without, God intended them to obtain 
from within. Of course the soul is a wonderful absorb- 
ent, and singularly sensitive to surroundings. Neverthe- 
less, the chief issues of satisfaction are from within, and 
much of the hunt for some happier lot is but an uncon- 
scious effort to get away from one's self. And yet there 
is now and then some good in so wide a world that re- 
quires a pilgrimage, and some needed help that justifies 
an expenditure. Who begrudges the cost of the brain- 
help one gets at Chautauqua ; the tonic of the salt serf at 
Sea View; the health drank at Saratoga, or breathed in 
the aroma that floats down from the pines of the Alle- 
ghanies or hemlocks of the Catskills? 

Taking the Baltimore and Ohio Road at Cincinnati, 
we passed on our way, the famous health and pleasure 
resorts at Oakland, Mountain Lake Park, Deer Park, etc. 
All these places have greatly improved since last summer. 
They are beautiful beyond description, popular beyond 
most of such places, and expensive beyond any desirable 
experience. They are all grand places for Parisian fash- 
ion, pearls, clusters, solitaires, rattans, snobs, cards, 
ten-pins, and hops — health (/). 

We pass on. 

Reaching Cumberland we (didn't) take breakfast at 
that grand and spacious Railroad House. We did take 
it there last summer, but how to keep it soon became the 
graver question. There is something about the flavor 
and odor of a great hotel kitchen that acts as a lever under 
the average human stomach. Could even that "great 
fish" have gotten one scent from some of the ill-kept kitch- 
ens, Jonah would have come to land. Brother Coleman's 
boarders have assured me that his house is a happy ex- 
ception, and the smiling faces and plump forms I see be- 



SONG WAR STORIES — LETTERS 265 

hind the counters and in other places of industry, assure 
me that Bro. C.'s dishes are palatable and plentiful. 

So we lunched from the basket amply filled at Frank- 
lin. We then proceeded by rail to White Sulphur 
Springs, Bedford County, Pa., whence these pencilings for 
the Chronicle. This place is more as nature made it than 
any other health resort within my knowledge,, The larg- 
er and the smaller trees still shade the ground and spread 
out into groves of cooling shade and romantic rambles. 
Art has made no other changes than to construct the five 
roads that radiate hence, and the paths that lead along 
ravines and wind about the hilly wilds. Many of the 
city ladies that gather here have a real or assumed horror 
of serpents. Soon after the arrival of such sensitive 
ones, they are informed of the names of certain of these 
roads and paths. For example : "This, madam, is Snake 
Avenue ; there is Copperhead Ravine ; that is Rattlesnake 
Street ; over there is Blacksnake Way, and just yonder is 
Viper Walk. Bear Hollow and Panther Hill also have 
delightful rambles, madam !" 

The guests that gather here are from various states, 
cities and sections. They are individuals and families, 
parents and children, professional men and men of man- 
ual industries, rich men and men of limited means, old 
men and young men, grave men and gay men, men who 
have come hither every season for thirty years and those 
here for the first time. But all easily become acquainted, 
and strong friendships are readily and frequently formed. 
A few snobs and fops find their way here, and it is quite 
noticeable that birds of this feather — if fledged at all — 
flock together. 

Nearly all denominations are also represented. 
Among our most intimate friends is a devout Jewish fam- 
ily from Cumberland. Mrs. R. and myself have found in 



266 LIFE 4ND WRITINGS 

them an exalted, pure, and companionable spirit. They 
profoundly respect all Christian people, and cherish a 
large reverence for the fact and forms of the Christian 
faith. I happen, as yet, to be the only clergyman upon 
the grounds, and have consented to preach for the assem- 
bled guest of the hotels next Sunday. The state of my 
own health requires all possible rest, and I must not re- 
spond to too many entreaties. Said a guest yesterday, 
from Kansas, "Preach anyhow ; is not the commission, 'Go 
ye into all the world?' " I reminded him that the first 
commission forbade both the entering of Samaria and any 
preaching to the gentiles, — that it was solely to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel, — that if I met with any such 
of the flock they would certainly be looked after. 

Wishing well for the interests of the Chronicle, and 
forgetting none of my dear friends in Franklin and vicin- 
ity, I pause hoping for time to take the pen again here- 
after. H. Y. Rush. 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 267 

AUTUMN 
(Herald and Banner, November, A. D. 1861) 

Past are the summer's sunny days, 
And garner'd all their golden grain. 

Hushed are the spring bird's matin lays, 
And fainter grow their Autumn strains. 

Faded, the flowers that bloomed in May, 
And bent before the maiden's tread ; 

Fallen, a thousand florets gay — 

Their graves, their once nice border'd bed. 

The leaves that crowned the oak and formed 

A gallery for feathered choirs, 
Have drooped, with rustling, stilly sound, 

Pensive as sorrow's whispered prayers. 

How changed ! The earth so gay, and clad 
In verdant garb with flowers inwove — 

In mourning now — a seared robe, 
Instead the green of bower and grove. 

The winds that fanned the face of toil, 
And wafted fragrance from the plain, 

Now come again with moan and wail, 
To usher in stern winter's reign. 

But winter's robes of ice shall melt ; 

For summer's sun shall shine again, 
And new-born beauty clothe the earth, 

And other garners swell with grain. 



268 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

So from the earth our lifeless form?, 
Long mouldered back to native dust, 

Shall rise arrayed in heavenly charms — 
Shall rise to shine among the just. 

Oh, joy! that e'en beneath my feet, 
And o'er the wide-spread floral plain — 

Where'er a flow'ret opes, I meet 
A pledge that we shall live again. 

Then mother dry thy streaming tears, 
And still thy sobs and heaving sighs ; 

The infant bud that drooped so soon, 
Shall bloom more beauteous in the skies. 



CHRISTIANITY'S KEYSTONE 

(Herald of March 27, 1902.) 

In a significant sense Christ's resurrection is the key- 
stone of Christianity. Could this be wrested from the 
arch, the entire edifice would fall into ruin. All the 
claims of Christianity would be refuted as a baseless 
falsehood. Our religion is built upon the person of Jesus 
Christ, who was declared to be the Son of God, with power 
by the resurrection of the dead. That resurrection dem- 
onstrates his divinity and guarantees all his children a 
life immortal. More than this, the Bible as a book of 
revelation stands or falls upon the fact of Christ's cruci- 
fixion and resurrection. You break the strongest link in 
Paul's logic if you can set aside his words, "How that 
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was 
buried, and rose again the third day, according to the 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 2G9 

Scriptures." This pivotal fact in history and in the 
Christian system he confirms by judicial proofs that would 
be unimpeachable in any civil court. By the legal re- 
quirements in such evidence, the witnesses were credible. 
The stupendous event fell within the reach of their senses, 
while in intelligence, memory, discernment, freedom from 
bias and without hope of gain, they were characters of 
unquestioned integrity. 

Paul, with his liberal learning and his legal lore, 
cites some all-sufficient proofs that Christ had come forth 
from the tomb. He had been seen by more than five hun- 
dred brethren, some of whom had fallen asleep. He had 
appeared to Cephas and James, and to Paul himself, as 
one of the least of the apostles. To this wise apostle it 
did not appear how these witnesses could be accounted for 
or disposed of, if Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead. 
Some unbelievers assume to lay stress upon the story of 
the frightened, fleeing, falsifying guards — their story of 
the stolen body. Well, if they accept the Gospel narra- 
tive at all, let us ask what they think of another part of 
the record. What said the angel about his rising — about 
the living not being found among the dead? We will 
set that angePs testimony over against all the fabrications 
of bribed soldiers, perjurers and murderers. The verac- 
ity of unholy men is always in the market, and self-inter- 
est will always determine their statements. In the deviPs 
delusions, pride and pedantry also play their part. That 
the Sadducees denied the resurrection was a doctrinal 
necessity— a cruel sectarian consistency. So also when 
the Athenian Greeks mocked at St. Paul. The overwise 
students of Platonism said that the resurrection denied 
nature, and a few prigs of the present-day pulpit affect 
to prune Christianity of its miracles. But the learned 
Paul saw in Jesus the glorious fulfilment of the words : 



270 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

"I will destroy this temple and in three days rear it 
again." Having seen, touched and handled the Lord be- 
fore His ascension; assured now that He lived again; 
having received His commission and the promise of His 
presence till the end, the apostles accepted Him as their 
Messiah. Henceforth for Him they faced all dangers, 
feared not the gleaming axe, braved blazing fagots and 
the fierce beasts of the arena. Ascended to His Father, 
He spake again to His people through His servant John, 
assuring them: "I am he that liveth and was dead, and 
behold, I am alive forevermore." "Write, Blessed are the 
dead that die in the Lord from henceforth." Oh, glorious 
truth! oh, blessed Easter memorial! Brethren, neglect 
not the paschal supper, which commemorates both Calvary 
and Olivet — atoning death, triumphant life, the gathering 
home. 

This bread and cup "do show the Lord's death till he 
come." Celebrate this death, for the life that followed 
is the fortress-fact, the Gibralter of our faith. Never can 
it be successfully assailed. Above this bulwark waves 
our Easter day flag in triumph over atheism, over death, 
over doubt and despair. 

OOO 

LIFE FROM DEATH 

(The Christian Messenger, March 28, 1902.) 

No Christian anniversary is more fruitful of religious 
lessons than Easter day. It leads us to canvass anew the 
great questions of death and life. Out of this contempla- 
tion come deeper and diviner revelations. Just here we 
are impressed with how little Jesus said of death and how 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 271 

much He spake and taught of life. Notably, He seems 
to drop death out of both figure and phraseology. He 
speaks of Lazarus and of Jairus' daughter as "sleeping." 
He alludes to His own death as a "going away." But 
in every parable, in every sermon, in every casual speech, 
He says something about life. In every way He presses 
home upon us the unutterable significance of life. 
Wherefore His frequency of mention and emphasis by 
notable acts? Because it is life and not death that 
shapes character and determines destiny. 

Each day's living leaves its changeless touch upon 
our lives, making us worse or better, more or less like 
Christ. But mere dying has no moral quality. It is 
not our act, but an appointment to all. It is not of 
volition, but of passivity, and has no more of virtue or 
fault than there is in being born. The Scriptures speak- 
ing, our own experience testifying, our observation of men 
corroborating, living is everything. Put what stress you 
may upon the dying words of friends, their living testi- 
mony only is essential. Perhaps some think too much of 
death and too little of glorifying Christ in their daily life. 
Our dying, our ceasing to breathe, will have nothing to do 
in fixing destiny. That you and I are fixing every day, 
and death can do no more than stamp upon it an eternal 
seal. 

These Easter days may we more and more turn our 
attention to the life that now is — a life that will go on 
forever under the resurrection pledge of immortality, 
"Because I live, ye shall live also." 

West Milton, Ohio. 



272 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

THE WORTH OF WINTER 

(Christian Sun of January 11, 1905) 

The holiday season has come and gone. There now 
stretch before use well-nigh a dozen winter weeks. Let 
not these many leisure days and long evenings be idly 
spent. Let them hold for each one of us the joy and bless- 
ing of solid work. So valuable is time that every day and 
every hour we may sift some of its golden sands into our 
lives. Warm fires and long winter evenings are provi- 
dential opportunities for all mental and moral improve- 
ment. In this way the winter may become a little kinder- 
garten, a little school, a little college, a little sanctuary in 
the home — a vestibule to many better things. Let family 
life, social life, intellectual and spiritual life receive re- 
newal and enlargement these long winter nights. Refresh 
mind and soul in the Word of God. Let dictionary, en- 
cyclopedia and atlas come back for a time into our studi- 
ous reviews. No sensible view of life allows its oppor- 
tunities to be lost. No man, woman or youth that has 
caught a true vision of life's mission will allow the gath- 
ering of any rust or dust upon his or her faculties. Nor 
will such a one number among the books for winter-night 
reading any volume of mere trash, nonsense or sensation. 
A mind that feeds itself upon such froth becomes unfit 
for any noble or needful service in life. When such light 
souls are weighed in the balances, or more charitably 
tested, they are found wanting — perhaps worthless. 
Young people of the large Christian Sun family, waste 
none of your winter days or nights reading volumes of no 
moral, literary or intellectual worth. Their reading will 
corrupt the mind, rob it of high ambition, and lower its 
standards of true excellence. An overmastering passion 
for novel reading, theater attendance, and games, of either 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 273 

skill or chance, doom one to mental indifference, moral 
stupor, and worthlessness to the world. Whatever life 
becomes harmful in its example and hurtful in its influ- 
ence, is worse than worthless. It has become an enemy to 
man, a danger to society, a pitfall, a destroyer of good — 
a moral murderer. Remember that God never forgets, 
nor shall we forget. God will judge us, and ruined souls 
may rise up to condemn us. It is wise, it is good, it is 
blessed, it is all joy, to live this short life for the endless 
life which is but a step beyond. Reader, be this thy pray- 
erful resolve. 

West Milton, Ohio. 

OOO 

DENOMINATION AND NAME 

(Herald of April 15, 1897.) 

For significance, teaching, distinction, names are a 
necessity. But neither nature nor art has imparted any 
virtue or charm to a mere word. Nor in Scripture is 
quality conferred through a name. Absalom means 
"father of peace," but he embittered his own father's life 
with war. Jerusalem means ''place of peace," but was 
for over two thousand years a theater of strife. Cain 
means "artificer," but this first murder seemed not inclin- 
ed to mechanics. Huldah means "mole" or "weazel," but 
that prophetess of God rose above the bad import of her 
name. Sinai is forever a sacred name, though the word 
means "dedicated to the god of Sin." Sunday comes 
with resurrection sanctity into the church's calendar, 
though the word has a heathen origin. God has blest 
men, and cities, and days, and denominations under 
strange, curious, and contradictory names. The Lord is 



274 LIPS AND WRITINGS 

not man that he should look only upon labels. He is not 
a sorcerer to make a fetich of a noun, to put a spell into 
pronunciation, or fellowship into a shibboleth. He looks 
deeper than surfaces and titles. He counts not against 
men and churches their venial mistakes — mistakes, per- 
haps, only in the eyes of men — mistakes more imaginary 
than mortal. Providence seems not to have conditioned 
denomination growth upon a title. What are the facts 
— what the voice of the last century's evangelism? One 
church works well-nigh a century, and under the name 
"Christian" gathers a hundred and fifty thousand follow- 
ers into its fold. Within the same time a sister denomi- 
nation enlists five hundred thousand under another Bib- 
lical name, "Disciple." In a little longer time the Meth 
odist Episcopal Church grows to little less than three 
million communicants, and now dedicates two new 
churches every day in the year. . All these peoples are 
"on the Lord's side," but on whose side is the Lord? On 
the side of weakness and strength, small things and great 
— of all things that promote righteousness and do not dis- 
courage, that build Christward and do not destroy. 

In philology that is the best language which is most 
elastic in its application and rich in its range of syno- 
nyms. In theology those truths are most precious to 
which we can give flexible, simple, satisfying expression. 
Hence Christ is not inclosed in some iron-like, unvarying 
mono-word, to be pierced only by Greek scholarship and 
appreciated only by classic and cultured mind. He 
comes to us in the beautiful terms of the Hebrew, the 
Greek, the Latin, the Anglo-Saxon, and is to us a Messiah, 
a Savior, a Teacher, and Friend, a Physician, a Healer. 
To his follower and to his church he gives endearing 
names, and speaks in many-sided expressions: Christian, 
disciple, friend, son, servant, children, brethren, saints, 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 275 

congregation, church of God, etc. What range and rich- 
ness of title ; what terms to express our common spiritual 
parentage, our divine kinship and brotherhood in Christ! 
Some have counted in the Bible three hundred and sixty- 
seven titles of Christ. Every such name is a window that 
helps us to see the Savior within. The church which 
holds the Christ within to be superior to any one of or all 
these word-windows, has spiritual power. Such a church 
will save souls under any title of its Head, Christ, or of 
the body, the "ecclesia" — the congregation — the church. 
Christ means anointed. One bearing the name "Chris- 
tian" may be anointed or may not. One bearing the 
name "Disciple' 5 or "Congregationalist" may be anointed 
or may not. The anointing without the name is better 
than the name without the anointing. 

It is creeds that keep the churches of Christ apart. 
A creed may be a word, an article, thirty-nine articles, or a 
little volume. Put your ear to the shortest of such creeds, 
and out of that little shell — "hard" as any other "shell" 
— is murmured : "Come to us — when you believe with us !" 
All these distinctions of exclusion impose an inexorable 
condition. It may be a form of speech, a style of dress, 
a cut of hair, a hat, a cap, single or trine immersion, 
thirty-nine articles of faith, four articles, one article, or 
one word — "Christian." Blessed, comprehensive, generic 
name. If we speak of Christ's church on earth as a 
whole, we may say, "The Christian Church." If we speak 
of a single sect or division of that entire body, it is a mis- 
nomer to say, "The Christian Church." 

I shall stand to the end upon the platform of our 
fathers as to Christian character being the only test of 
fellowship and of denominational co-operation. I could 
find in no other pale a nobler brotherhood or more helpful 
fellowship. The trend of our fairly and ably edited pa- 



276 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

per and of its correspondence is all in the line of less 
tenacity for what Gallio termed "words and names," and 
for what Paul preached and died — the union of Jew and 
Gentile into one faith and one fellowship — and this in a 
Person and not in a title — in charity, in love, and not in 
form and show that are as tinkling cymbals. 

West Milton, Ohio. 

o o o 

RELIGION AND LONG LIFE 

{Chronicle, December 29, 1904.) 

Practical religion is a friend of longevity in a fact 
that it is a protest against dissipations which injure and 
destroy the health. Bad men and women live a very short 
life. Their sins kill them. You all know many good 
old men and but very few bad old men. Why? Bad 
men seldom live to get old. Lord Byron died at Misso- 
lought at thirty-six years of age, himself his own Mazeppa, 
his unbridled passions the horse that dashed with him into 
the desert. Edgar Allen Poe died at Baltimore at thirty- 
eight years of age. The black raven that alighted on the 
bust above his chamber door was delirium tremens. 
"Only this and nothing more." Napoleon Bonapart lived 
only just beyond mid-life, and died at St. Helena, and one 
of his doctors said that his disease was induced by exces- 
sive snuffing. You have known many people who have 
not lived out half their days on account of their dissipa- 
tions and indulgences. Now practical religion is a pro- 
test against all dissipation of any kind. But you say 
professors of religion have fallen, professors of religion 
have got drunk, professors of religion have misappropri- 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 277 

ated trust funds, professors or religion have absconded. 
This is all true but they threw away their religion before 
they did their morality and before they did these evil acts. 
If a man on a White Star Line steamer bound for Liver- 
pool in mid- Atlantic jumps overboard and is drowned, is 
that anything against the White Star Line's capacity to 
take the man across the ocean? And if a man jumps over 
the gunwale of his religion and goes down never to rise, 
is that any reason for your believing that religion has no 
capacity to take the man clear through ? In the one case 
if he had kept to the steamer his body would have been 
saved; in the other case if he had kept to his religion his 
morals would have been saved. 

O O O 

ALWAYS WITH US 

(October 23, 1884.) 

My pastoral work has recently brought me into con- 
tact with much sickness. One aged sister I received into 
church and baptized on the Sabbath. The Sabbath fol- 
lowing she went home to Jesus. She said to me a few 
hours before her departure, "I am satisfied ; I am happy, 
for Jesus is always with me." How precious her testi- 
mony! Yes, Jesus is always with us. When the cup of 
sorrow is brimful, and earthly helps have wholly failed, to 
the heart comes this comfort: "I will not forsake thee." 
When worldly friendships fly away as thistledown when 
struck with a rod, Jesus is still the Friend that sticketh 
closer than a brother. When the death-shadow creeps 
over the face of our dearest earthly friend, Jesus is still 
the ever-living Helper. When Satan would insidiously 
lure us back to the world, there comes to us the help of 



278 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

these words: "I have prayed for thee," "lo, I am with 
thee." Awful may be the storm that breaks upon us, but 
above its roar there falls upon the soul that ripple of mel- 
ody: "When thou passeth through the waters, I will be 
with thee." I think it was Rutherford that said, "Faint 
not, for the miles to heaven are few and short." 

Brother, sister, faint not. There are many heads 
lying on Jesus 1 bosom, but there is room for yours among 
the rest. H. Y. R. 

O O O 

A PLEASURABLE PRIDE 

(Herald of September 30, 1897.) 

In a certain county of Ohio there is a city seat of 
justice, and several other large and prosperous towns. 
In each of these there are several churches besides that of 
our people. In the Monday morning ministerial meet- 
ings of these towns, our pastors give proof of equal edu- 
cation, culture, and sermonizing ability with those of the 
other churches. May not one have a pleasurable pride 
in ministerial brethren of such professional ambition and 
ability? And why their capacity to cope in all theolog- 
ical and literary discussions with others — to measure 
homiletic strength with the strongest? It is all the out- 
growth of an intelligent and holy love for one's calling. 
It is a reward of study and of industriously acquired in- 
formation. 

Who could be blamed for blushing, if our pastors in 
those towns were compelled to take a back seat in assem- 
blies of the cultured, and to keep closed lips for fear of 
infracting the rules of good English, and of betraying 
stupidity, when power might have been their possession? 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 279 

No one has any proper denominational pride who can keep 
back the blush at any wilful outlandishness in his preach- 
er. You want your family horse, cat, and dog to appear 
as well as those of your neighbor over the way. Ought 
not brethren to have even more pride in the man whom 
they have often to introduce with the statement : a This is 
our pastor?" 

Happily, we now have academies, colleges, and theo- 
logical institutes, where pious, ambitious, and worthy 
young men can secure the Scriptural and reasonable edu- 
cational helps in the highest of all human callings. 
Churches should make no terms with preachers who are 
too indolent to study, and too eager for unmerited pro- 
motion. Eaglets that have waited for their wings, do not 
ask for other help to rise. To be borne wingless above, 
is to fall fatally back to earth. The "Excelsior" motto of 
a true young minister has in it the elements of every-day 
and ever-enduring growth. 

West Milton, Ohio. 

O O O 

AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH 

(Sun, March 5, '02) 

The Christians South walk under a clearer sky to-day 
than ever before. In aspiration and enterprise they are 
abreast with the times. To such a condition their origin 
and early days were favorable. Happily, from the times 
of O'Kelly they have stood firm for the Word of God. At 
the same time they have invoked the mighty and providen- 
tial helps of schooling and culture. Seen in their own 
Southland, or met with in the North, they impress us with 



280 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

their courtesy, culture and Christian consecration. All 
their delegates sent to conventions in the North are re- 
membered and esteemed for the qualities I have cata- 
logued. There is a scriptural sense in which it is impor- 
tant that any people be evangelical. No prosperity or 
spiritual power is possible to a sect that lifts not up 
Christ and the Holy Scriptures. From the days of O'Kelly 
the Christians South have recognized the primal import- 
ance of being born again. They have put stress upon a 
spiritual, prayerful life and a family altar. What was 
spiritually good in Wesley they brought along ; what was 
sect-like in his system they left behind. Their sermons 
at Northern conferences have been rich, strong, and in- 
structive in gospel truth — free from pulpit pedantry, dis- 
plays of spread-eagle oratory, and explosions of philoso- 
phy falsely so called. There is almost mountain weight 
in Rev. Alva M. Kerr's late statement in The Sun, quoted 
from the Herald of Gospel Liberty: "In all the conferences 
T attended not one word was spoken to raise a doubt or to 
detract from the divinity of Christ and the church." Bro. 
Kerr, as I think, saw our people in the South in the right 
light. Had the whole Christian movement, East, and 
West, sprung from O'Kelly, it would have been more pos- 
itive and less negative, more evangelistic and less con- 
troversial. Oftentimes we might have been driving 
Satan's forces before us instead of lying in trenches or 
mounting guns against those who should have been fellow- 
soldiers under the same Captain. Fortunately, the South 
ern church has never been a field of debate, but a broad 
land of brotherly co-operation. Our pulpit there is strong, 
and our laity are awake to work and sacrifice. All the 
elements of culture and consecration are crystallizing into 
unity and gathering for a harmonious move for larger 
usefulness and greater victories for Christ. 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 281 

THE BREAD OF LIFE 

(Herald of Gospel Liberty, March 6, '02) 

A few Sundays ago the Sunday-school lesson was on 
Christ's feeding the five thousand. This brief exposition 
begun then was delayed by illness till to-day. You will 
remember that beautiful golden text, "I am the bread of 
life." Every day the body hungers for bread, and thrice a 
day we are gladdened at the sight of it as we gather at 
the board. At every meal we are thus reminded of Him 
who fed the hungry thousands, and who supplies manna to 
starving souls. Precious symbol of the soul's life and 
strength ! Every loaf, cut and crumb of bread preaches 
Christ. The plate itself mutely proclaims Him who is the 
soul's daily and never-dying life. On the oval rim of our 
family bread-plate the potter has molded in raised letters 
the Master's words : "Give us this day our daily bread." 
Think of so many preachers in one cottage home — our 
every-day dining-room preachers: plate, loaf, slice, and 
tiniest crumb! — all mute reminders of Christ, our Bread 
of life. Morning, noon and night we seem to hear them 
saying in holy concert: "I am the bread of life;" "Give 
us this day our daily bread;" "He that eateth of this 
bread shall live forever." 

Bread is the life of the body, and all our physical 
vitality is but the diffused effect of our food. So is Christ 
the life of the soul, and all our spiritual energy is but the 
abounding of Christ in our higher being. To the soul 
Christ is more than medicine : he is food. Christ is more 
than curative: He is constructive. Christ's omnipotent 
"Talitha cumi" was followed by the command, "Give her 
to eat." Too many preachers arouse, but do not instruct; 
they stir emotion, but supply no meat. Jesus brings both 
healing and nutrition, pleasure and power. Joy comes 



282 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

with His salvation, but the blessing abides in a daily up- 
building through bread — the Bread of life — "our daily 
bread." Bread! Blessed type of the Manna that im- 
parts immortality. Let us reverence it, and see in it as 
much as does the untutored Arab. It is said that if he 
finds "a bit of bread in the road, he will pick it up rever- 
ently, kiss it, touch it to his forehead, and placing it on a 
wall or in some convenient place for the birds to find, 
will say, 'We must not tread under feet the gift of God.' " 
May we all treat this sacred symbol with equal reverence, 
hearing the words of Jesus as given in the sixth chapter 
of John, and answering, "Lord, evermore give us this 
bread." 

West Milton, Ohio, 

OOO 

A MESSENGER OF PEACE 

(The Christian Messenger of May 17, '01) 

A brother visiting my home a few days since found a 
late Christian Messenger, with other papers, on the table. 
Carefully reading it for a time, he looked up and said: 
"I like the Messenger; I find peace in all its pages." This 
led me to think that it cannot be denied with truth, nor 
confessed without shame, that our cause has seriously 
suffered from doctrinal controversy. It was the policy of 
our fathers to unite the people of God and to secure that 
oneness of the church for which Jesus prayed. The early 
Christians declared that a church composed of hundreds 
of discordant sects must fall at last like a house divided 
against itself. It is not the business of the Christians to 
make over the creeds of Christendom, but to harmonize 
into one family the children of Goci uxjcler all creeds, Jf 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 283 

instead of assuming to revise the world's creeds we had 
adhered to our beautiful mission of unity, we could have 
enjoyed from the first the same interdenominational affil- 
iations that give us to-day so happy a fellowship and co- 
operation with the sister communions of Christendom. 
To open now a grave holding the two buried hatchets, 
Trinity and Anti-Trinity, is to invite an ill that a century 
might not cure. As musical to-day as when the refrain 
echoed from an angel throng, are the words, "Peace" and 
"Goodwill." 

West Milton, Ohio. 

O O O 
USEFULNESS IN AGE 

(Sun, of August 20, '02) 

The Christian life favors longevity and unimpaired 
mental activity. Intelligence and scripture teaching fos- 
ter a scrupulous care for health. Persons constitutionally 
feeble attain to long life by a careful observance of phys- 
ical law. Every virtue helps to build up a sturdy bodily 
vitality. We have among us quite a catalogue of aged 
ministers in excellent health of body and mind — fresh, 
too, in all the fine affections of the heart. Many of these 
are still the mental and spiritual benefactors of the read- 
ing and thoughtful multitudes. In the South are Wellons, 
and Holland and others; in the North are Coe, Weston, 
McWhinney, and others. Would that we had room for a 
longer list. Those mentioned, and others, have blessed us 
all through the pulpit and the press or by the stainless 
purity of their lives. Thousands have been enriched by 
the wisdom of their words and by the grace, purity and 
instructiveness of their writings. Down to these evenings 



284 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

i 

of their days they speak on, -work on, write on, or teach 
on to win from the brotherhood fresh regard. For many 
sterling qualities I must reckon in their ranks venerable 
women like Dr. Long's mother in Alamance, and Mrs. 
Caroline Ellis, ex-assistant editor of the Herald, in Yel- 
low Springs, Ohio. Blessed women of God, mothers in 
Israel ! — we cannot associate with their venerable forms 
any infirmity of mind or failure of their beautiful affec- 
tion. The divinity of the gospel, the wonder and great- 
ness of grace divine, have unfailing proof in the long and 
good life of the venerable, and in the trustful, beautiful 
spirit in which they come down to the grave and step into 
the gate of glory. 

O O O 

THE NATURAL TWIST 

{The Messenger, August 27, '02 ) 

Some years ago an old farmer was expressing his 
opinion about preachers. He was noted for his common 
sense and his ready use of apt and homely illustrations. 
He said he had noticed that there are two kinds of preach- 
ers, one natural and the other artificial. He preferred the 
natural. He said they did not change with time, use, 
weather or situation. The natural preacher, he said, is 
like a scythe snath. Artificially bent, they often lost their 
necessary shape. But now and then he could find one in 
the woods that had just the right "twist." He would 
dress and polish it and attach it to the scythe, and it 
never lost its twist. The store snath was of higher polish, 
and prettier to look at than the natural, but as it was 
shaped by steam it lacked the durability of the natural 
twist. 

By natural twist the farmer meant certain abilities 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 285 

born with the preacher. Without these abilities all arti- 
ficial discipline of thought, culture of voice and study of 
manner fail to make a preacher. Nature must have done 
much for the successful preacher. But nature must be 
remedied, and God's messenger must receive the gift of 
the Holy Spirit. Natural abilities are necessary, but they 
require the supplement of that which is to be superadded. 
To have been well born is seen to be a great advantage in 
the man who has been born again. Larger will be the 
share of acquired qualification in the preacher possessed 
of the right natural gifts. Limited and questionable is 
the success of the preacher who professes a call from the 
Lord, but who is all the time impressing us that he was 
born without "the natural twist." On such, money and 
many school years have often been disappointingly spent. 

O O O 

AN UNTOLD STORY 

(Sun, August 27, '02) 

It is generally known that P. T. Barnum, the great 
showman, was a strong temperance man and a conformer 
to the most rigid rules of morality. He and our lamented 
David Clark, of Hartford, Conn., were most intimate 
friends. Much of Mr. Barnum's large benevolence was at 
Brother Clark's suggestion. Barnum said, "I'll make the 
money but you must tell me where it can be given for the 
greatest good." But the story, as it was told to me by 
Brother Clark: 

One day a well-dressed snob was speaking derisively 
of the Christian religion. Mr. Barnum's gentle reproval 
was insolently met with the question, "Are you a preach- 
er?" "No," said the showman, "but I believe in morality, 



286 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

and I believe in meeting-houses and in the gospel. Show 
me a place where are no meeting-houses and where preach- 
ers are never seen, and I'll show you a place where old 
hats are stuffed into the windows, where the gates have no 
hinges, where the women are slipshod, and where maps of 
the devil's wild land are marked out on men's shirt bosoms 
with tobacco juice — that's what I'll show you. Let's con- 
sider what the preachers and what religion do for us, sir, 
before we abuse them." 

Could any reply have met the case more in keeping 
with fact? Judged by its fruits the tree of the gospel 
truth stands grandly every test. 

OOO 

SECOND-WORK SANCTIFICATION 

(Christian Sun, March 24, 1901) 

Perfectionists have never yet agreed as to what is 
Scriptural sanctification — its conditions, steps, processes, 
experiences and fruits. Christ says, "Seek and ye shall 
find." That must apply to blessings recognizable when 
obtained. Should one seek some indescribable or vari- 
ously described good, its identification would be impossi- 
ble if found. God in His goodness has made unmistak- 
able the criterion of having passed from death unto life. 

This winter the writer heard a three-weeks' series of 
sermons by one who for twenty years has been a preacher 
and expounder of "sanctification." In some points he 
radically differed from others of his own doctrinal school. 
But, like most of his brethren, he had come to see teach- 
ings of "sanctification" in nearly everything between Gen- 
esis and Revelation. In all the Tabernacle and the 
Temple construction he saw them; in all their apartments, 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 287 

appointments and priestly administrations he saw them. 
In all the books and chapters, and in nearly all the mir- 
acles and parables of the New Testament, he saw them. 
If he did not see them in the Morocco and the silken 
stitches of the binding, he at least imagined them in all 
that was written between the lids of that well-read volume. 

With a preconceived theology one may find doctrinal 
supports in texts irrelevant to the subject. Such a read- 
er, however honest and pious, will see the truth but in 
parts. These parts he will magnify beyond their normal 
proportions. In so doing the tendency is to bias and 
unbalance — to make so morbific the mental vision that a 
patch of truth expands into a plantation. Notice vis- 
itors at county fairs and in halls of art. A finisher of 
spokes sees more in a single wheel than in all else of the 
artistic chariot. A worker in pearl is more fascinated 
with that one ornament than with all the gorgeous en- 
tirety of the queen's robe. So with specialists in the 
support of a dogma. Hence Paul's charge to Timothy, 
admonishing him to observe the whole catalogue of in- 
spired teaching, without preferring one before another. 
They who teach doctrines in segments may unintention- 
ally distort the parts as adjusted by the Spirit in truth's 
perfect circle. God has made all saving and essential 
truth so simple, so attainable, so attractive that the tini- 
est fingers of faith can bend about them and bring them 
close to the pulsing heart. Doctrines that disturb and 
distract the pious and long-established believer with the 
groundless apprehension that he has traveled toward 
perdition while honestly thinking that he was nearing 
Paradise, have never come to any parish in these parts 
with messages of harmony and measures for enlarged 
spiritual power. 

By the way, I note in the Sun of the 28th ultimo that 



288 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

a beloved brother sees in the vine and the branches of 
John 15 : 2, the doctrine of "sanctification" "in full force." 
He sees therein "most positive evidence of the second 
work of grace in the individual believer." He makes it 
stronger still. He says : "It is as plain as your hand be- 
fore you at midday?" Thus plain to whom? To him. 
All depends upon who looks, whose hand is held up, from 
what sun beams the light. To the Romanist the flesh of 
Christ is plain in the communion wafer; the blood plain 
in the wine ; the true church's foundation plain in Peter. 
To over three hundred sects in America three hundred 
clashing creeds are each to somebody as plainly scriptural 
as your uplifted hand is plain at midday. Now, if either 
Christian unity or individual experience of conversion is 
to depend upon every man's seeing with this hand-plain- 
ness just as every other man sees, very far off must be the 
millennium of fellowship and of uniform feeling of 
"Christ in us the hope of glory." But to the parable and 
to our brother's argument. The vine is pruned (purged 
or cleansed), and that, he says, is "the second work of 
grace." Well, the vine was pruned every year during 
the long existence of a Palestine vineyard. And here, 
alas for the logic, is a second, third, and possibly a forty- 
third work of grace ! All this parabolic care of the vine 
means simply more vine, more pruning, more fruitfulness, 
more and more sanctification, growth, blessedness, even 
unto the day of perfect bliss. If my beloved brother's 
argument proves anything it proves too much, and hence 
proves nothing. 

Bible meanings bend not accommodatingly even to 
most honest differences of doctrine. Every verse of 
Scripture is a coin from the heavenly mint, pure, perfect, 
unchangeably superscribed. It is not as potter's clay, to 
be shaped to every man's liking, or to take the convenient 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 289 

mold of multitudinous opinions. Nothing better, after 
all, than the old-time Christian notion that love is the ful- 
filling of the law, the evidence of having passed from 
death unto life, and of fitness for the fellowship of all the 
saints. I believe that my brother of that "midday" 
plainness abounds in and ably proclaims this wondrous 
love, and that to him, not less than any else, it is the bond 
of a blessed brotherhood. If any man's love bind him to 
Christ, bind him heart to heart to his brother, his "sancti- 
fication" sufficeth. 

O O O 

IS SANCTIFICATION A CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE? 

(Christian Sun of December 20, 1900) 

Every teaching, every truth of the Bible, is a Chris- 
tian tenet. A perfect creed must include every scrip- 
tural principle and precept. Omitting the dot of an "i" 
may throw the whole body of the Bible doctrine out of 
balance. A perfect creed would therefore resolve itself 
back into the Bible. Hence the Christian claim that a 
full Bible is the only infallible guide. A perfect creed 
can be nothing less than a copy of the Scriptures — a per- 
fect "Declaration of Principles," only their duplicate. All 
fads of faith only fractionize a truth. They mar its sym- 
metry and incite men to schisms. They destroy the per- 
fect poise of individual, mental and moral being. They 
divide the body of Christ. Controversy is engendered. 
With the same Bible in hand, "every one of you hath an 
interpretation." Creeds, systems, standards multiply. 
The accepted ones of Christ are sharply criticised or ex- 
communicated. Babels of new beliefs spring up. They 
rise not to completion because of clashing and quick con- 
fusion among their own builders. 



290 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

There are now many schools of sanctificationists. 
The one represented by their three weeks' meeting, now in 
progress at this place, is a modification of many others. 
The preacher is able ; and excellent for all is much of his 
discourse. But pressing his faith into every "crack and 
cranny" of lesson and text, hinders and handicaps his 
work. In the firmament of scriptural truth God makes 
no one orb to eclipse all the rest of the heavens. He 
shuts not man in a universe of instruction with a window 
opening but in a single direction. 

Multifarious are our mental conceptions, and varied 
are our emotions. Love, charity, changes not. It feeds 
upon all that is good, feels after all that is good, fellow- 
ships all that is good. It plunges into no excess. It is 
incomparable of conduct that is ludicrous, foolish, Phari- 
saic. It stops no man on the street and says : "Oh, broth- 
er, don't you want to feel as I feel; to live above every 
evil thought and every temptation, as I live? If you do, 
get sanctified; get the 'second' blessing!" 

The Christians have no defined or dictated tenet 
touching a "second blessing" — the when, the where, the 
how of one's everyday brighter and higher experiences. 
We are all in the school of Christ, and the divine Teacher 
turns out variant but truest types of both clerical and 
lay life. Last machines shape all blocks of wood alike, 
and the foundry matrix gives the same mold to all 
metals. The developing potency of the Spirit is not thus 
mechanical. God makes over man and still maintains 
his individuality — preserves unity in diversity. But in 
the quality of love there is uniformity. To have that 
love is to have Christ ; to have Christ is to have liberty — 
liberty that is heaven-given, heaven-like, tolerant, beauti- 
ful and brotherly. It never sets up standards of opin- 
ions and experiences for others. It demands not uni- 






SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 291 

formity of experience, nor declares those without it to be 
still in darkness and under condemnation. 

Our Declaration of Principles mentions but defines 
not "Sanctification." It makes the doctrine no test. By- 
more than fifty years the Christians, South, antedate the 
Declaration — the Bible by eighteen hundred and fifty 
years. The Declaration was prepared by an uninspired 
committee of three. The Bible was written by sixty-six 
authors appointed and inspired of God. The Declaration 
is good — humanly correct. The Bible is better — divinely 
perfect. 

Sanctification — consecration — complete and unchang- 
ing surrender to God — oh, its blessedness! To be fully 
consecrated, to be consciously accepted, to be blest a first, 
"second," third, a thousand times; to know the love of 
God for yourself ; to be lifted above mere doctrinal terms 
and conflicting interpretations ; to be bound by no other 
man's emotions or exegetical demands — to be so blest is 
bliss itself in foretaste — is liberty, joy and fellowship in 
the Holy Ghost. True sanctification has in it sweetness, 
light and love; has in it breadth and height; depth and 
width; capacity and possession. It is rich in all the 
wealth of charity and fellowship that unite the weak and 
the strong, the great and the small of Christ's family into 
one. So O'Kelly saw it, and based our spiritual oneness, 
not on Wesley's notion of "Perfect Love," but on Christ's 
higher standard of spiritual kinship and likeness to him- 
self. Character wrought out, and not the full elabora- 
tion of the Spirit's methods, is all that our fathers de- 
manded. 

In the technical discussion of "Sanctification" schol- 
arship has wrestled with Hebrew and Greek roots. Out 
of the contest have come interpretations as various and 
more numerous than the denominations. So here we are 



292 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

— remanded back to the Bible, and reminded of John's 
touching injunction: "If God so loved us we ought also 
to love one another." Through one of His apostles Christ 
also so commands Obedient to His every word, every teach- 
ing and tenet of the Bible wheels into line and lifts to its 
high place that capstone and completeness in all Christian 
teaching — in all Christian virtues — "Love is the fulfilling 
of the law." 

O O O 

NOT TOO FAST 

{Sun, June 27, 1901) 

The traveler must not get before his guide nor he that 
is led before his leader. We live in an age of irrever- 
ance, of worldly wisdom, of big conceit. Unprecedented 
is all material progress. Never before such strides in 
manual arts. Steam and electricity have multiplied me- 
chanical power. What is the bearing of these leaps and 
bounds upon religion ? 

The material and the moral are out of parallel. The 
former rightfully searches for nature's law; the latter 
would wrongfully supersede our divine revelation. To 
the contrary, the church should study Christ and His 
Word. In these there is all that is good, both new and 
old. Men's new things are God's old things. Man's 
most modern discoveries are of creations a million years 
old; are of laws ordained in the infinite past. We may 
get our printing presses, telephones, and electric cars 
through evolution, but we must get genuine doctrine and 
good religion through Revelation. The conceit of learned 
theologians and the wiseacres of skepticism are all a 
whole eternity behind God. They will never catch up 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 293 

even with Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist. As to 
Christ, they are still behind Him clean out of sight. The 
most pious, the most truly learned, the most devout stu- 
dent of the New Testament will scarcely have mastered 
the alphabet of the "Book of books" when the world shall 
stand at last in its very zenith of its material and moral 
attainment. And yet even some preachers would have 
us believe that a progressive revelation is to carry us be- 
yond the teachings of the holy Scriptures. Thanks be to 
God, this is a Book of infinite wisdom. Even in the cen- 
turies of a long future the creed and religion of the "com- 
ing man" will be that of Revelation and not of Evolution. 

O O O 

ADVERTISED REPUTATIONS 

(Herald of September 5, 1901) 

It is very proper that our papers speak of good men 
and their good works. Providence uses the press to ac- 
quaint us with the Christ-like characters of earlier and 
of later times. Their very lives are a lesson to us, and 
will be an inspiration to better life in later generations. 
Their worth to the w^orld should be told everywhere, in 
type and by the living tongue. But the press should 
never be used to publish abroad fictitious abilities — talents 
beyond most charitable computations at home. Compli- 
ments of the papers should make no minister larger 
abroad than is justified by the measurement of his neigh- 
bors. If a brother himself is tempted to over-publish 
his work, or pour reputation from the fuller pitcher of his 
predecessor, let him listen to Paul : "Though I would de- 
sire to glory, I shall not be foolish ; but I forbear, 

lest any man should think of me above that which he 



294 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

seeth me to be, or heareth from me." 2 Cor. 12 : 6. Pos- 
sibly Paul's "abundance of revelation" tempted him to 
"exaltation." Therefore that "thorn in the flesh." It 
was well, for copious inflow of mental and spiritual light 
may have pressed hard the apostle's humility. But 
this profusion of illumination comes not to self-seeking 
and stolid minds. Until supernal rays have pierced such 
opacity it will be spared the great apostle's plodding of 
the flesh. But, to sum all up in brevity, let no man's 
work, no man's ability be over-advertised Where this 
is done, somebody is deceived, and somebody suffers. Be- 
coming modesty and just measurement of one's self would 
raise no expectations impossible to meet. 

O O O 

PARAGRAPHIC 

(Sun, August 27, 1902) 

Revivals are apostolic and old-time. They are need- 
ed, too, in our new times. We should never outlive them, 
and we can never outgrow them. But they must be un- 
derstood and must not be overdone. Too much must not 
be expected of the enthusiasm of crowds, the inspiration 
of eloquence, the rush and hurry of the multitude. Pub 
lie prayers, often from doubtful brethren, are not spirit 
ually and scripturally prevailing. To pray for one's 
self and to wrestle in the closet brings better results than 
are possible to mere public exhibitions of penitence and 
zeal. 

The other day I heard the remark : "I always hate to 
have to write a letter!" But we must remember that 
there are different kinds of epistles. Of these Paul 
makes most important what he calls "living epistles." 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 295 

Even a poor penman can become himself an epistle for 
Christ — an epistle "not written with ink bnt with the 
spirit of the living God." To the poorest reader such 
epistles are legible, truthful, instructive, saving. 

The power to proselyte requires no true religion. A 
big tent goes around over this country. It is pitched here 
and there to make proselytes and not converts. One 
reason some fads are bent on the business of proselyting, 
is they are not able to make converts. The proselyter is 
a sea-and-land compasser, making weak men and w^omen 
many-fold more the children of delusion. They need no 
grace, no mind of the good Master to do this. One idea 
and a lot of impudence make their equipment complete. 
Sect building was always easy, because narrowness must 
rest on a single stone. It cannot compass the twelve 
tribes, the twelve apostles, and Christ for the chief corner. 
Such a combination of history, of truth, of providence, 
of tact and divine force, is too broad for a fancy, a fad, 
a mere feeling. 

OOO 

SCHOOL=OPENINGS— STUDY— TEACHING 

(Sun, September 12, 1901) 

Elon College and a thousand other schools will soon 
have their autumn openings. So far as possible let every 
Ghristian family send one or more sons or daughters to 
college. The opening of schools is a great day in the life 
of pupil and of his teachers. How can I best study ? and 
How can I best teach? are just now questions of moment- 
ous importance. Wrong methods of teaching do the 
pupil irreparable injury. A Greek musician asked twice 
as much for teaching those who had had other instructors 



296 LIFE AND WRITINGS 

— one-half for "unteaching" the things wrongly taught. 
So far as possible young people should study with method 
and be careful that their store of information is of prac- 
tical value. Moreover, their school instruction should 
train them in clearness of thought, accuracy of concep- 
tion, and precision of expression. Lessons in composi- 
tion should make them superior to all loose and slipshod 
language — masters, even, of a clear, terse and trenchant 
style of oral and written speech. It is well, too, to avoid 
the strain and waste of teaching unimportant things 
Some of our text-books are crammed with details, — "ex- 
amples", "exceptions", "observations", — of value only in 
later and more elaborate research. The more cumber- 
some the book the less of it the student stores and retains 
in his memory. Especially in primary studies do we 
need clear, terse, outline text-books. Text-books, library 
books, long newspaper articles, and tedious sermons, need 
to be cut down. Condensation would be good even at the 
cost of running the pen through fine passages and across 
pertinent but superfluous matter. I do not say that 
pupils should be taught less, but that they should learn 
the things that are most practical and precious. For 
example, it is better that a student so learn the office and 
functions of a preposition as to know it wherever he sees 
it, than merely to memorize a long list of these relational 
words, and then mistake a preposition for a conjunction. 
It is better to know things by their nature than by their 
names, for thus we may apply both distinctions precisely 
where they belong. North Carolina has enacted a good 
law as to the selection of her text-books. Now let her 
legislate for a Commission to expunge from these books 
the detail and the puzzles that depress the pupil, and 
throw a mist about those branches of study that true book- 
making ability might simplify to the capacity of both the 



SHORT ARTICLES AND STRAY PAPERS 297 

common school and the college attendant. It is unfor- 
tunate that so many youths of average good mind con- 
clude that certain branches of study are too complex for 
them to master. This is all the more to be lamented when 
the text-book might be so made, and a wise method of 
teaching so applied, as to render such deception and harm 
impossible to any ambitious and persevering pupil. 



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